


Plus One

by taiketsuenmi



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, do you ever imagine what it'd be like if tim had been in tftbl?, not planning to do ships but you can take whatever from this, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-04 14:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10993137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taiketsuenmi/pseuds/taiketsuenmi
Summary: "Two AWOL Hyperion employees, two wanted con artist sisters, an assassin-vault hunter, a former vault hunter body double, and a handful of eccentric robots. With a team like this, what could possibly go wrong?The answer? Well, just about everything."A 'what-if' where a Timothy who fled Hyperion several years earlier comes along with Athena to teach Fiona and Sasha, only to get caught up in literally everything else.UPDATE:On an indefinite hiatus! Sorry about that, guys!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever multi-chapter fic! I have some plans for this, and this scenario has been in my head for a while. I have so many ideas for Borderlands stuff, especially for Rhys, Jack, and Tim, but I also thought I'd give a multi-chapter fic a shot! Especially when I have most of it actually in mind. 
> 
> Thanks to nyatsuma for reading over this like the 500 times I sent it to you over skype. You're too good to me. 
> 
> Also if there is a better way to copy paste fic onto Ao3 please let me know, I'm suffering a whole lot copying this stuff paragraph by paragraph when there's like 4000 words. Also that being said please let me know if something seems missing or there's errors or a paragraph twice. Ao3 hates me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, uh. I hecked up. Accidentally posted chapter 5 BEFORE it was done, then in a panic deleted chapter 1 but managed to copy paste it. I am so sorry, oh my gosh.
> 
> I also don't have the original summary but I'll do my best with it. This is a fic about Timothy basically coming along with Athena in tales from the Borderlands. Largely me experimenting and working out how I see Timothy post-pre sequel.

“I’ve got a job I want you to cover me on.”

Not a ‘hello’ or ‘how are you? It’s been years since we saw each other! I missed you!’, it’s straight to business, it’s just so much like Athena that it makes his chest warm and a smile grow on his hidden face. God, he missed her. She doesn’t look any different in the years that had passed, the same hair, same clothes, same…Athena. It’s comforting to see when everything else around him had been tossed upside down. Even if the thing that hasn’t changed is a former Atlas assassin who is emotionally stunted and has more baggage than any one person should have the burden of carrying. Because in comparison, he’s barely the person he was before. He has a lot of baggage, sure, but he wasn’t tricked into assassinating his own flesh and blood.

It’s been too long since they worked together. Or hell, since they’d even seen each other. Going into Claptrap’s coding had been their last job together, and he hadn’t seen or heard from her since. And he had to cut off all contact after his own mutiny, he was Hyperion property, and he doesn’t want to think about the money Jack had put into him. How he’d managed to survive all this when he’d jumped ship on sheer adrenaline and sheer fear fueled impulse still alludes him. But maybe, just maybe, it’d been whatever higher power giving him a break for once. Or that’s big thinking, he knows lady luck and the higher powers love fucking with him as much as possible.

“It’s nice to see you too, Athena.” He amusedly greets. His voice is altered and warped, an obvious attempt to mask his voice. And to his credit, it only sounds slightly synthetic. “Sorry I’m late. Ran into some trouble on the way here.” Athena is standing there, arms crossed over her chest, expression sharp and ready as her blade. Her response is a curt nod, because Pandora gives you trouble no matter what, and closes the gap between them. She’s several inches shorter than him, but she still manages to look imposing. In comparison he probably looks like a friendly, helpful stranger, even with his face hidden.

She starts walking and he follows along. The air around them is chilly and damp, it smells thickly of moss and stagnant water. You know. typical, er, _cave_ smells. Hollow Point isn’t exactly the kind of place he considers homey, it’s dark as hell, the smell isn’t pleasant, and its occupants look like they’d stab you if you look like you had anything worth taking. Not his kind of town. But then again, try finding any place that doesn’t have murderous occupants. You probably won’t.  
  
“Thanks for coming.” She starts suddenly, amidst their silent trudge, and he tilts his head towards her. He knows she can’t see his face under the hood that hides his hair, the goggles that cover his eyes, and the scarf covering everything else, but she seems to get the message. “Janey thinks I quit the Vault Hunting and assassin business, I need you to be backup in case something goes wrong, or I need to head back.” He can’t help the sigh of disapproval that escapes him and she glares. He’s not a relationship guru, but he really wants to tell her to not keep things from Springs, she’s a nice enough gal, she’ll understand.

“It’s not like you to be uncertain. What kind of job even is this, ‘thena?” Even under pressure, she always has an air of certainty, and it’s only when she was certain there was no other option that she would willingly turn back. He’s toughened up on Pandora, he can handle a lot more than he could before, but he’s no former Atlas assassin.

“It’s…” She purses her lips, furrows her eyebrows, and goes into silent though. He doesn’t push her, and simply lets her mull over her thoughts. He trusts her not to lie. “I’ve been hired to mentor someone.” She finally concludes. He raises an eyebrow, but she can’t see it. He’s about to ask her more. but she cuts him off and continues. She sounds frustrated.

“Unfortunately, they have bounties on their heads, mistook me for an assassin, and a Loader tossed me across Hollow Point after perceiving me as a threat.” Uh, wait, what? “They left not too long before you arrived, we should keep moving.” And that gives him about a thousand questions he knows he’ll never get answers to. Her pace speeds up ahead of his and he lets her stay ahead until they arrive at a Catch-a-Ride. They have to get a vehicle somewhere that isn’t Scooter’s place, that’s where Janey is, and besides, Scooter is Moxxi’s kid, he’s sure if she catches wind of him, it won’t end well. So they have to walk a bit, but it’s not by much more.

The catch-a-ride at the entrance of the cave, he leans against the machine as Athena taps in her preferences, and he’s staring out the open mouth that expands out into the dry, cracked earth of Pandora, Helios hovering in the sky in front of Elpis. It’s almost pretty, in a desolate wasteland sort of way. When he hears the sound of the vehicle digistructing (a sound he’s plenty familiar with), he eagerly pulls his gaze from the space station, he feels like the eye of Helios is always staring down at him, watching everything he does on this fucked up rock of a planet.

Athena takes driver’s seat and he rides shotgun, and to his pleasant surprise the ride is uneventful and mostly peaceful. No bandits trying to run them off a cliff or gunfire. They only have to mow down about three of four rakk that got a little too ballsy and wanted to dive at their vehicle.  
  
“Do you even know where they went, Athena?”

It’s a thought that should have come before they decided to drive off in what seemingly felt like a random direction. Athena’s gaze is glued forwards but she still looks displeased with his concern. “Is that the kind of person you take me for? The kind that just goes in a random direction and hopes for the best?”  
  
His gaze falls forwards as ell, and he shrugs. “That had better not be a yes.”  
  
The ride is dull enough that he actually manages to doze off eventually. It’s short lived, however, and he wakes with a start as their ride comes to an abrupt stop and he lurches forwards. His head snaps up and he makes a started sound, eyes slowly focusing and adjusting to see Athena trying to get the Vehicle up and running again, swearing softly under her breath and eventually smacking and the dashboard. He grabs for his gun, and his head whips around, trying to pin point any threats. This goes on for about ten seconds before she turns to look at him and grabs his shoulder, tugging at it to grab his attention. “I’m awake, you don’t really think I sleep _that_ hard, do you?”

She rolls her eyes at him and pulls away. “Looks like we’re going to have to make the rest of the trip by foot.” She sounds about as happy as he feels about that fantastic news. He rolls his unseen eyes back with a groan. _Grrrrreat_. “Old Haven it’s too far from here anyways. We should hurry, before we lose them for good.”  
  
She abandons their ride and he follows suit, eyes traveling along the landscape, and they easily catch the buildings stick up out east of them. He glances over at Athena, who looks less perplexed than he is and more pensive. Then she starts towards that direction and he follows, footsteps easily following in line with hers.

It’s unfortunate, but their trek on foot isn’t as peaceful as their drive up until that point had been. There’s a group of psychos they decide to avoid, the bastards screaming about meat and their other typical nonsensical babble, and after that they dispatch some more rakk. Then finally, they have to deal with a handful of spiderants. None of these are difficult tasks, but it slows them down, and neither of them are too pleased with this, they’re on a time limit, and they don’t know how much time they actually have left.

They’re finally closing in on the location of the tall buildings that jut out of the skyline amidst rocky formations and dry, dusty landscape. There’s a strange emblem on the side of the building that looks like CP or GP, he can’t quite tell which it is. It’s Old Haven, he’d deduced this by now from an old, uncared for sign that somehow remained somewhat intact, they’d come across earlier. As they draw closer those buildings really start to look like they’ve been mystically misplaced, among all these other ratty buildings. It’s eerily quiet, he knew Old Haven was abandoned, but he sort of expected at least bandits or Pandoran wildlife to have taken up residence, but there’s nothing as they start to make their way through the desolate area.

But when a gun goes off, it fills up the silence and startles both of them, it cuts through the air and it’s sharp and loud. It came from deeper in, but still nearby, he hopes this job isn’t going to be over before they can even start it. They only need to give one another a brief nod before splitting their own separate ways. Athena taking a direct route while he takes to the roofs to get a vantage point. He’s learned and adapted a lot of Pandora, and his situation almost demands that his tactic be to pick others off from a distance. They get too close there’s a change they’ll rip off what hides his face, and while it makes good for a brief stun on most, if even one of them gets away, it’s end of the line for him.  
  
He’s able to locate where the shot had been fired from the first roof he gets to. There are two vehicles and a group of a number of people right in front of the entrance of the tall buildings that stand out so clearly against everything else in this little ghost town. But it’s not a clear shot, So from the roof he’s now on, he needs to find a better, and preferably clearer position, so he jumps from one roof to the other and crawls up an old, rusty ladder and to another and it’s there that he has a good angle.

He draws his sniper rifle— Jakobs— and aims down the sights.

There’s a very tall, broad woman who is laughing as she tosses a gun onto a corpse, said corpse clad in a fancy suit, a look of shock and fear in the dead man’s eyes. She’s clearly the boss on her side, the way she’s dressed and that menacing attitude says it all. She pulls out another gun, this time smaller, and points it at a young woman who is just staring down it’s barrel. Well, more like gawking as she’s being faced with her untimely demise.

Dammit, where is Athena? He’s not sure which side they’ve been hired for, or if either side even has the people they’e been hired to assist. His aim drifts between the two women before he hears the gun go off and he swears softly, ready to shoot at the imposing older woman when he spots Athena’s familiar colors coming to the younger woman’s defense. Her shield effortlessly absorbs the bullet as she drops down in front of the oncoming shot, and then lands with ease, digging her heels into the dirt as she drives herself forwards with the shield and into the other woman’s monstrous, fur clad frame, ramming her back.

One of the men goes to draw their gun and he pulls the trigger, squeezes it easily and the shot rings out even sharper than the one they’d heard from before, ripping the bandit’s hand clean off. He lets out a horrid scream, clutching his arm, the stump where his hand had been moments ago spitting out blood. Athena hurls her shield amidst the shock, when the focus is momentarily up on the rooftops, trying to locate the sniper, and it slams into the man he shot and slams his head into the side of a building before continuing on, driving through the others with equal brutality.  
  
The woman she’s rammed was finally regaining her bearings when Athena’s shield returns to her, and she hurls it straight into the menacing one’s stomach, sending even someone with such a large imposing frame straight onto her back. He hadn’t taken any real notice in it until now, but the woman had been clutching a large metal ball that had then fallen from her grip, and slowly rolled towards the woman Athena had just saved. She stops it with her foot.  
  
But he’s quick to focus his sights on the woman Athena had just hit, who finally regained her footing for good. She looks pissed that Athena had just ruined this for her, completely wiped out her team, he sees her draw a knife from her sleeve and her head is right in the crosshairs. That’s when someone else cuts in, doesn’t block his shot, but cuts in.

He’s listening in over Athena’s ECHO device, and he hears the young man’s voice as he speaks. “Not here. We gotta go.” The woman is focused completely on Athena, her lips curled into a livid sneer, until the far younger man at his side makes a small gesture and her gaze follows. To him.

Timothy takes in a soft breath and pulls the trigger, but the bullet doesn’t meet her head, instead it meets the dirt at their feet, a warning shot, and she bares her teeth again, and he can see the rage rising in the woman’s face, only now it’s directed towards him as well. Yikes, what a scary lady. He makes a nudging motion with his gun that he’s not entirely sure that they can see, but the gesture means ‘get the hell out of here before I paint the ground with your brains’.

Her gaze flicks between him, the other man, then Athena, and the people behind her a few times before she finally takes a small step backwards. This time it’s her who speaks, her voice dangerous and threatening even as she’s backing towards the vehicle, ready to flee. “This isn’t over.”

Her threat doesn’t deter Athena, and he doesn’t expect it to. She hasn’t moved from her defensive stance as she speaks up, voice biting. “You’re the one leaving. Looks _over_ to me.” He focuses on the man and woman as they’re backing towards the car, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.  
  
“No…it’ll feel much different than this. I’ll let you know when it happens.” Timothy fires another shot, this time at the vehicle just as she jumps in. He doesn’t see their reaction but he smirks underneath his scarf at what their faces probably looked like as they drove off.

Then finally, they’re alone, the woman’s car weaves through Old Haven’s streets and he watches it through his scope as the sound of its motor fades as the distance between them grows wider. Nobody speaks, and there’s heavy tension in the air. He doesn’t keep his scope off of the vehicle until he’s certain it’s not going to come back, and then it falls towards Athena.  
  
Through static, he hears Athena speak, finally cutting through the silence, and she sounds mad. “Tell me, are you all…just…completely _stupid?!_ ” She’s spitting those words through grinding teeth. He watches as she turns to face them, staring them down with angry, eyes and lips curled in utter frustration.

He maintains his position, watching Athena berate the unfamiliar faces. Not gonna get involved with this one, no sir.

The woman in the front manages to get something out ‘well, not…all of us’. He can’t bite back the small snort of amusement that escapes him, but Athena’s response isn’t nearly as lighthearted. She’s still pissed off, and her voice echoes off the empty buildings in this empty town. “I am here to help you! You _idiots!_ ”

“...oh.” The same woman manages to utter after a few long seconds, she’s staring at Athena, dumbfounded as ever. It’d be amusing if up until just now they hadn’t thought the former Atlas assassin was trying to kill them. Athena lets out a growl of frustration before lifting her hand up to her ear, her gaze drifts along the buildings for a few seconds until he waves an arm, and she fixates quickly on him. They all do.

“Is it clear? If not, shoot them and get down here, I am _not_ getting paid enough for all of this.” He wants to retort, say that _he’s_ not getting paid _at all_ , but he knows she’s just in a mood, and this has all been a huge pain in the ass, so he decides against it. Instead he scans over the area one last time, and nothing moves, nothing stirs, there’s no sign of life anywhere now that those unfamiliar faces finally backed down. Good.

“Clear as a sunny, summer day.” He chimes in dryly, he can hear her scoff at his attempt at humor. Well, maybe it’s more him being a smartass.  
  
“Get down here, then.” He hums in acknowledgment, holstering his rifle and taking a moment to adjust the scarf that hides the lower half of his face, and to tug the hood further over his goggle clad face. It takes him a few minutes to climb down and weave through some of the building to reach Athena and the little gang she’d just saved from certain death. This place is in bad shape, but the fact that it was still staring probably meant it was better off than New Haven.

When he finally gets within earshot, he hears someone who isn’t Athena speaking. “—who even hired you?” The voice sounds annoyed, sharp, accusatory. He steps into view but nobody seems to notice at first save for…is that a loaderbot?  
  
Athena sighs, “A man named Felix.” A pause, there’s a shift in the air around the two women Athena is now talking to. “I normally don’t divulge that kind of information, but…he wanted you to know.”

He’s listening in, but not really focused on what it is they’re doing. His gaze is drifting to and from each unfamiliar figure around him, none of which have taken notice to his presence quite yet. There are four in total, he can tell that the two talking to Athena are women, but he can’t tell much about the other two, who are focused on something else entirely, their backs facing him. He lets out a near silent sigh and turns his hidden face towards Athena.

“So, why didn’t you just tell us that earlier?” It’s the woman Athena had jumped in front of before, she sounds accusatory, but Athena bites right back.  
  
“It’s not exactly something you _scream_ down an alleyway when you’ve got Vallory’s goons running around. My work requires some discretion.” He’s never heard of this Vallory person before, but he wagers it was probably that woman from before. What kinda shit did they have to do to get mixed up with someone like that?  
  
“So, you’re…what? Our bodyguard, or something?” He snorts in amusement, and it startles both of the women. The one who spoke, the shorter one without the hat, shoots him a rather fierce and entirely distrustful look as she seemingly takes him in in an instant. Athena seems unaffected by his presence.

“Thankfully, no. More…I don’t know, a mentor? Felix wanted me to pass along some knowledge, to help you survive. He felt you two had some untapped potential.” Her response is greeted with bitterness on the smaller woman’s part— something about being ripped off and abandoned. He frowns under his scarf. It’s not his business what happened, but this sounds like it’s complicated, and she is still very bitter about it.

Despite that, the woman with the hat thanks Athena for helping out, and also confirms that that scary ass lady earlier was, in fact, Vallory. Then her gaze falls on him, she isn’t as quick to look him over like the other woman, instead she’s taking her time to look over every inch of him, and he crosses his arms over his chest as she finally reaches his hidden face. She clearly doesn’t approve that she can’t see what he looks like, either. Too bad, that’s not changing for you or anybody else, missy. He smirks.

“And what about him?” She asks, this time sounding suspicious, and he rolls his head, a gesture he hopes to emulate also means he’s rolling his eyes. Athena rubs pinches the bridge of her nose and inhales, before exhaling a sigh.  
  
“Consider me some extra fire power, or an extra set of eyes. Whichever you prefer.” Whatever he says will probably be a bit nicer than Athena’s response, so he cuts in. Both of the women are looking him over now. They're scrutinizing him hard, they don’t trust him. It’s understandable, Pandora doesn’t have a whole lot of trustworthy people, and even less of them hide their faces. “I never got your names.”

The two girls look between one another for a moment before the taller one meets his unseen gaze and crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m Fiona, and this is Sasha. And you are…?” She tilts her head to the side, still not trusting, eyes still wary.  
  
He lets on arm fall to the side and the other offer a small salute. “Tim.”

“Well, welcome aboard. I guess.” Sasha mutters out after a long pause of silence and scrutinizing. She doesn’t sound too happy, what with the guy hiding his face and Athena who seemingly tried to murder them being their new company.

“Thank you.” Athena grunts out, finally starting to wind down from being so frustrated. “And they are…?” She gestures to the two men, and the girl’s expressions shift to exasperation and annoyance respectively. “The short one with the glasses is Vaughn, and the lanky guy with the robot arm is Rhys.”

Timothy turns to look at them, both have their backs facing the group, examining the ball that Vallory had surrendered earlier. It was the first time he really bothered to get a good look at them, and they look like typical desk workers. Hyperion, if the tall lanky man (Rhys, Sasha had informed him moments prior) and his prosthetic arm were any indication, with it’s unmistakable Hyperion yellow, and it’s whole aesthetic just reeked of the infamous corporation. Oh, also the Loader. Yeah, if the nothing else screamed Hyperion, one of their bots absolutely did.

Said ‘Rhys’ lets out lets out a smug sound and tilts his head briefly towards them “I think I got something!” He sounds proud of himself, his voice is self assured. Definitely Hyperion. The girls quickly move to approach but Timothy hesitates, holds his ground, and Athena takes notice, stopping mid step and glancing over to him. Her cold gaze softens by the tiniest of fractions, eyes scanning over him in a way that he knows all too well is her version of concern. He doesn’t doubt she too recognizes the Hyperion prosthetic, picked up on the fact that these two work with that company. She’s sharp, and he knows that’s why she’s giving him that look in the first place.

She doesn’t know the details, but he’s sure Janey told her about his frantic call years back, when he realized the finality of the upcoming procedure to complete his transformation from ‘regular’ Jack into ‘Handsome Jack’. He’s sure she knows he’s wary, maybe even a little nervous, because he’d been an asset to Jack that ran away, and an expensive asset at that. So encountering anything Hyperion was more dangerous for him than even the biggest of badasses. Frankly, he’d have preferred being torn alive by skags than be discovered by Hyperion, and that opinion still stands. Jack might be dead, but Hyperion discovering Timothy could not end well.

He takes a small step forwards, and then another, braver step, and then another, until he’s brushed by her and he can feel her gaze on his back, but she’s soon following, and he feels her hand grip his shoulder with a tight, reaffirming squeeze that he knows is one of her awkward attempts at comfort. It actually kind of hurts. He smiles, though, even if it goes unseen. On Elpis they’d gotten pretty tight, at first her lectures and lessons were done out of annoyance due to his incompetence, but over time it grew from an annoyed mentor into more of an awkward familial relationship. She grew to be like a sister, he’d never dare say that aloud, though. Family is a very touchy subject for Athena, and even after all these years what Atlas had made her do was still raw and fresh.  
  
The other four are chattering among themselves when the two approach and Fiona kneels down and rolls the object over. Timothy is keeping his distance, as is Athena. _It could be a bomb._ If his bad luck was going to follow along this group of unlucky chumps, it was probably going to be a bomb.  
  
Another step back as she presses a small button in on the surface.

Well, turns out whatever it is, it isn’t a bomb. Instead there’s a small sound, like a computer booting up, and a robotic female voice echoes from the metal sphere.

_**“ INITIATING GORTYS STARTUP SEQUENCE. ENERGY CHASIS REQUIRED FOR VAULT OF THE TRAVELER PROTOCOL. LOADING COORDINATES FOR ENERGY CHASSIS. “** _

The ball is hovering as the voice speaks, it’s pretty weird. But he’s seen weirder, Athena’s seen weirder, and judging by the mere shrug that Rhys offers Fiona, this also isn’t the wildest thing any of them have seen lately.

_**“GORTYS…ACTIVATED.”** _

Then it drops abruptly to the ground. Timothy tenses and his hand instinctively brushes past the Vladolf pistol at its holster.

_**“HAPPY BIRTHDAY.”** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you saw the top notes, uh. Yeah. I messed up. My bad. Oops. Chapter 5 isn't finished but it almost is I swear.  
> alsoo shoutout to Nyatsuma who beta-read this the first time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to nyatsuma aka Tay again for beta-reading my stuff! Again! You're the absolute best.
> 
> I'm slowly starting to figure out how to write this stuff better and I'm trying to improve and not be repetitive. That being said some dialogue is going to be skimmed just because if I wrote all of it it'd just be way too long? And I don't want it to be a copy paste word for word thing.

All of them are stuffed in the front while Fiona is trying to drive, and she elbows a few guts and mutters a few insults as they're all pressed to the windshield in curiosity and awe. He wasn't sure what he'd been looking for when it came to Gortys's energy chassis, but this...?

Yeah, he certainly hadn't expected something like this.

It's a spherical structure, emanating a soft purple light, and as they grow closer and closer to it, the building only seems to increase in size. It's massive, in fact. It's strange, there's barely anything out here in the tundra and then suddenly this huge _thing_ just pops out of nowhere.

As they come to a gentle stop at one of the gate entrances surrounding the globe (and that's what he's calling it now until someone tells him otherwise), he can see the trees from over the top of the solid fence before they even get out of the caravan. Now, he's no regular visitor to this part of Pandora, but he's fairly certain that flora doesn't exactly prosper in this cold. The caravan's soothing rumbling dies down softly as Fiona kills the engine, and everyone is eager to get out of the caravan. But Timothy doesn't move at first, he's suddenly stuck by how pretty everything looks. Something akin to the aurora borealis nestles itself in the night sky, and the stars brighter here than almost anywhere else he'd been on Pandora. It's like it's something straight out of a fantasy world. It doesn't feel like something that could possibly exist on a rock like Pandora. It's a mix of blues, greens and purples and honestly it's _breathtaking._  
  
Everyone is eagerly piling out of the Caravan, and he's one of the last ones out along with Fiona, and he notices even the _snow_ seems to have taken on a blueish hue. This is the kind of thing you maybe once in your life, and there's a sense of wonder alight inside of him.

" _Woah_ , I don't think I've ever seen so many plants in one place before."  
  
Oh. Oh right, the, uh, the globe...thing. Yeah. He totally hadn't been just staring at the sky, because it's not absolutely _stunning_ or anything. No way.  
  
As if the breathtaking sky, and as if the lights reflecting off the pure white snow wasn't fantastical enough, what sits before them is almost unbelievable. There are so many _plants_ , and most of them are glowing. He sure as hell doesn't recognize any of them.  
  
" _Damn._ " He sounds as awestruck as he feels, and he should probably be glad they can't see his face because he is just...gaping at all of it. The others are commenting about the scene before them when he moves forwards towards the almost unreal scenery that's just ahead of them. Then he hears one of the girls call for him.

"Hey, wait up!"  
  
It's just enough to get him to stop and bring his attention back to focus, even with how reluctant he was to do so. He turns to face them, and Gortys is already wheeling up to him at an excitable speed. "We're _so close!_ " Who would have thought her chassis would be in a place so...pretty? No, pretty really doesn't encompass what all of this is. Gortys zooms on ahead, and the others follow suit, but he's drinking in what he sees before him and it's a whole lot.

All these plants, this foliage. There's far too much of it surviving the relentlessly cold winds. Whatever kind of place they'd just stumbled upon, it's nothing like any of them have ever seen before. Vines weave through the trees, and bio-luminescent mushrooms taller than even him glow a gentle blue alongside smaller mushrooms that range from blue to red and various shades between and it's all _glowing_. He's not the only one in awe, they have to pause for a brief moment as Rhys lags behind too, looking at every little thing they come across. It's enough time for Sasha and Vaughn are talking about touching a particularly gnarly looking plant.

When everyone is caught up they continue along the path, there are clusters of shimmering blue crystals cutting out from the icy ground that they pass by, along with more of those massive mushrooms and odd tube-like plants. Their small path them leads to a slightly more open space, and as they come in closer to the dome, it becomes apparent that the dome itself is an orange color, not purple like it had appeared to be off in the distance. Maybe it's because of the lighting, the glowing mushrooms make everything radiate a soft lilac.

He knows, very clearly in his mind, none of this is natural, or native to Pandora, because nothing on Pandora is quite this _pretty_ without also being horrendously deadly and so far nothing has tries to eat them.  
  
Rhys and Loaderbot make quick work of clearing out some debris blocking their entrance, during the time it takes, he realizes this place is Atlas. Which explains the conversation he'd only heard snippets of from Fiona and Athena, but he'd only been half listening anyways. Atlas wasn't really renowned for agriculture. What were they trying to do with this place?

Past the now cleared entrance is another one that actually leads to the inside of the orange orb. This place, beautiful as it might be, is really _weird._ What the hell is it? What is it doing here?  
  
They all wait with anticipation as Fiona opens the door.  
  
What they're met with is not more mysterious plant life, or something even _more_ insane, but instead a dim room. It's not alight with the comforting purple hues outside, instead it's dark and while Fiona leads the way, even she hesitates to take a step inside. "Anybody else's creep-o-meter going off right about now?"  
  
" _Yup_." Vaughn adjusts his glasses and hesitates, looking around the room none of them have dared to quite enter just yet.  
  
It's only when Gortys rolls in and confirms this is where her chassis is that anyone dares to step inside. "Sorry it's kinda spooky." The little bot finishes with a downtrodden expression.  
  
Timothy follows suit, looking around, and something does feel _very_ wrong about this. If Pandora wasn't so damn unpredictable the shift in tension might have given him whiplash. "Not your fault, little guy." The little robot looks up at the body double and the little expression flips into a cute smile.  
  
"Spooky? Ehh...I can handle spooky, but this place feels...I dunno..." As Fiona speaks, her eyes are drifting across the room, they all seem to be getting the same vibe from this place at once. That's  _never_ a good sign. Timothy's taken out his pistol, and Athena seems to be feeling the same way he does, she's on guard, eyes scanning the room cautiously.  
  
"I do. It feels dangerous." Athena grumbles out, eyes briefly on Fiona before back to searching the room like a keen hawk once more.  
  
"Just keep your eyes peeled and stay on your guard, alright?" Athena nods in agreement with the former body double's words. They all decide looking around this room first is the best option, and Timothy already misses the surreal atmosphere that they'd abandoned for this. He feels like someone is watching them, and his gaze drifts around the room, trying to spot something like a security camera or ...you know, just _something_ , but finds nothing of the sort. After a while he lets his gaze drift, and eventually he takes notice is to the other side of the room. A dome of glass covering them in the form of a roof and walls, and it makes everything feel unnervingly exposed.  
  
Beyond the glass there's even more plant life _inside_ this damn thing. He's come up to the desk that's near it and he gazes through the thick panes. Someone or some _thing_ could be down there, and he's not willing to leave it unchecked.

It surprises him when he hears someone clear their trough from behind him and he turns his head to see Fiona.  "You, uh, see anything?" She's uneasy, they're _all_ uneasy. His gaze drifts around the room again. Sasha is digging through some crates, and Rhys is going through a computer, Vaughn is at a table, Athena is in what looks like some rudimentary kitchenette while the robots are standing by the door that they hadn't yet gone to visit.  
  
"No, but I like to think that's for the better." Fiona nods in agreement, and his gaze follows hers past the glass and down below. It looks like a jungle, really. It's so thick and he can only imagine how humid it probably is. It's really surreal to look at, so much was growing here, thriving, when just outside everything is a frozen desolate waste.  
  
"I've got this, yeah?" He cuts through their brief moment of silence together. "Just keep looking for that upgrade for Gortys." She stares at him for what feels like too long before she finally nods. On the way down she finds a map, too. Which pulls his attention away from the glass as she moves on. It's hand drawn, and like Fiona said, deliberately obscure. What the hell?  
  
Then she finds _clothes_ and there's some fruit on the table that's been left half eaten. It's like someone has been _living here._  
  
Fiona voices his suspicions and it only makes it feel that much more likely. His grip on his gun is tighter now and his gaze is wandering the room again, examining every inch possible from his position. Gortys is being hopeful, trying to say optimistic, that if someone lives here they might be nice!  
  
" _Oops._ " The little sound Gortys makes catches his, Fiona, and Vaughn's attention first, and he carefully steps away from the desk as Fiona approaches approaches the bot.  
  
"Gortys?"  
  
He's following along at Fiona's side when the shadows shift from behind some crates. Timothy's already got his gun pointed as a figure steps out from their hiding place, and Fiona shouts for the little bot as she takes a small step back and draws her hidden weapon. And the first thing out of the stranger's mouth?  
  
"Don't kill me!"

His hands are up, trying to appear submissive, but it really doesn't do much when you pop out of hiding like that. Is this guy out of his _mind?!_  
  
His aim doesn't waiver from the man just standing there, looking terrified with two guns pointed at him, the stranger doesn't move, his chest is rising and falling rapidly and his seemingly blind eyes dance between everyone in the room. A smart move on his part, but why the hell had he been _hiding?_ It's absolutely and completely sketchy, and so far this old guy is doing a very bad job with first impressions.

Even despite his stupid plan to try and hide from them and proceeding to startle literally everyone in the room, he's trying to get Fiona not to shoot. Tim doesn't know Fiona particularly well, but he has a gleaning suspicion she doesn't have any plans to unless the old guy makes a move first.  
  
His hunch is right on the money, because she withdraws that fancy little pistol of hers back into her sleeve. Timothy doesn't lower his gun for a little while longer, though. Only until he's certain the old man isn't any immediate threat, and then he finally lowers his own weapon.  
  
But he'll be damned if those old guy thinks he'll holster it.

It's immediately obvious the old man is hiding something from them, from the first question asked his eyes are darting around nervously, he stutters, and when anyone confronts it with suspicion he looks like a deer caught in headlights. He doesn't seem dangerous, but he's full of shit, and he's encouraging them to leave him. He is absolutely trying to hide something but he is so very, very bad at it.

A darker part of his mind, speaking in a sickly familiar voice, encourages him to threaten the old bastard to spill his guts. _He's not gonna listen to reason otherwise, Timmy. You know that, I know that, we all know that._ He grinds his teeth in silence. But he keeps his gun lowered, and he stays quiet, and eventually the old man spits out a story about just having arrived here. Well, it's bullshit, pretty much everyone is in agreement on that. The map, the clothes, the food- it's all been here too long, this old guy hasn't just gotten here. Fiona calls him on his bluff, citing the map, and that's when the old man finally gives in, tells them something that doesn't feel like a total lie (but at best Timothy is willing to bet it's a half truth).  
  
The upgrade, the old man, suspects, is in a bunker out in that jungle, but it's outfitted with security that they would need to disabled first to get to it. Rhys is eager to jump to that task, self assured and smug as ever about his hacking skills, even when the old man tries to discourage him. So they decide it's best to split up. Fiona and Athena would go to the bunker while Rhys and Sasha go to the security tower.  
  
Timothy offers to stay behind with Vaughn. Athena is probably trying to take this opportunity to work on Fionas's skills, Sasha and Rhys can take care of themselves. More specifically, Sasha can take care of both of them, and Vaughn doesn't need to sit here all alone. He doubts they'e intentionally leaving the poor man out, but the way Vaughn's frame sags when he's left out is obvious.

Timothy thinks he might understand. He's been in a similar situation before, he was there, for a long time, among the group of Vault Hunters on Elpis.  Sure, he still at least had Claptrap to compare to, but he'd still been a nobody in comparison to the Lawbringer, the Enforcer, the Gladiator, and the Baroness. All seasoned  with a weapon and ready for a fight. Meanwhile there was Tim, who'd never shot a gun before in his life, and was starting to realize he'd fallen down a rabbit hole he was never going to make his way out of.  
  
Fiona does turn back though, just as they're about to leave, and Vaughn is practically pleading to be of some use, so she asks him to try to find out more about this Vault. And again Timothy's reminded what all of this is leading up to.  
  
A disaster.

"Thanks for, uh, staying behind with me."  
  
Huh?

Timothy tilts his head towards Vaughn. Until now he's taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the old man while Vaughn tries to find out what he can. All things considered, if this old man is any threat he's incredibly patient.  
  
"Hey, no problem. Someone's gotta stay back and do all the behind the scenes stuff." The sound Vaughn makes is a pitiful attempt at a laugh that just turns into a sigh half way through.  
  
"But, that- that's like, the problem, you know?" He sounds defeated. "Rhys can do all that cool hacking, Sasha is good with guns, and Fiona's great at talking us out of stuff. But me? I-I'm just...good with numbers. But what good is that down here?" Timothy hadn't actually expected the other man to spill his guts like that so suddenly, or eagerly. The doppelganger watches the accountant stare at the screen long and hard, and honestly the smaller man looks more saddened than frustrated.

"I think you're looking at this wrong." Vaughn looks up from the console that he'd been focusing son intently on until now. "Like I said, someone's gotta do all the seemingly mundane stuff. Because if someone doesn't the whole thing will fall apart." He lets out a small laugh. "Besides, you're handling Pandora _way_ better than your cyborg buddy. He's cool and all, y'know with all that hacking and stuff, but if I had to put my money on who'd last longer on their own out here, it'd be on you."  
  
Vaughn doesn't respond, he just stares at Tim and looks five kinds of baffled. When he finally does move, it's to adjust his glasses and slowly turn his head to look back at the screen.  
  
"Wow. I, uh...thanks?" The accountant finally lets out a soft, breathy laugh of disbelief. He hadn't expected that sort of response, apparently. But going off his own experiences, all Tim had really wanted was to be told he was doing a good job. Elpis had truly been hellish for him, and his company at the time hadn't been particularly kind or caring. "That... _wow_. I...I think I'll just get back to, uh, you know..."

Timothy laughs. "Don't wanna let Fiona down, gotcha."

Nothing particularly spectacular happens on their end after that, outside of the two robots socializing there's not much to be seen or heard. The old man paces about on occasion, but he never tries to speak to Timothy. He _really_ wants them out of his hair, though. Like, a lot. He keeps glancing at the two of them, then at the door the other four had vanished behind.

What Vaughn does manage to dig up isn't very detailed. The most he could glean from what was in the database was there's a vault referred to as 'The Vault of the Traveler' which apparently teleports. It's very nonspecific, vague, and Vaughn asks Tim if he thinks this is the one they're even after, but the doppelganger mearly shrugs. Tim is more focused on his mind flashing back to his time in Eleseer. The vault guardian known as the sentinel hadn't been a pushover, it had been a long grueling fight. He thinks about Jack, and how he'd been seated like a king, soaking up inhuman amounts of knowledge, and how Lilith had permanently branded the man with the infamous insignia of a vault.

When he finally pulls himself from the ugly memory, Athena and Fiona have returned.  
  
"You're back! And with the Gortys upgrade no less." It's the old man speaking again, Timothy frowns, makes his way over towards the rest of the group.  "Huzzah!" Seriously, this guy is way too eager for them to get out of here. "I take it you'll be on your way, then?"  
  
This old man is really pushing it, and it's starting to bother the doppelganger. "Uh, no?"  
  
The stranger pauses and turns to look at him. Timothy taps his foot impatiently against the metal flooring and Fiona rolls her eyes. "You do realize we're still waiting on two more?" Even she sounds fed up with all of this. Timothy considers himself patient, but when someone who does cons for a living, especially long cons, starts growing tired of your shit, you know you're really starting to push it.  
  
" _Yeah,_ we're not about to ditch our friends."  
  
At this the man's excitement seems to deflate. "Oh, right. Of course not. Well, perhaps I should be the one to leave, then." What he immediately takes from that is that it isn't the weird old man wants to be left alone here, it's that he wants to get away from them specifically. Timothy is seriously trying to figure out this guy's deal and it's proving to be frustratingly difficult. Timothy lets the old man walk by without stopping him, but he has a few questions that he's about ready to ask when a muffled cheering comes from behind one of the doors.

" _Whoooo!_ "

That certainly snatches Timothy's attention from the quiet old man. Him, along with everyone else turns to the door as it slides open.  
  
" _God!_ I forgot how great this feels!" It's Rhys, he sounds odd. He's strutting into the room and Sasha is lagging behind. Everyone seems about as confused as he is, even as Fiona tilts his head towards Sasha in question, all the younger of the two siblings can do is shrug and shake her head. Rhys lets out a laugh, but his attention is on Vaughn. "And it's good to see you, kiddo."

Uh, what is going on right now, exactly? What are they all seeing right now? This is weird, and it's making everyone uncomfortable. Timothy moves closer to the group slowly and watches Rhys with caution as the middleman gives Vaughn's side a solid punch. Confusion is slowly being overtaken by a sense of uneasiness over this...display.

"Ooh! Old iron abs over here, and here I thought you were just a dweeb. But _nooo_ , you're a  _buff_ dweeb!" There's something in Rhys's voice that's unnerving, the doppelganger doesn't like it. Not at all.  
  
"Rhys," Fiona sounds put off and, quite frankly, disgusted. "You're acting like an ass."  
  
"Hah. Look, sweetie-"  
  
" _Sweetie_?" Where the others are confused and disgusted, Timothy  is experiencing a rapidly encroaching sense of familiarity. It isn't the good kind, either.  
  
"I just gotta be _me_ , baby." Timothy is trying to push back on the feeling that's threatening to overwhelm him, and he's not doing a good job. "Y'know, this me. The, the me that I am right now." His heart is pounding in his ears. Does Rhys think this is _funny?_ Timothy's hands are trembling.  
  
" _Athena,_ have I got something for you. Ooh! You're gonna be soooo happy." He wraps his arm around her shoulder and he completely disregards how she's _glaring_ at him. Timothy wants to scream, but he's frozen in place, and his heart is pounding in his chest. Why is he doing that? Stop _doing_ that!

"I doubt that." Athena's words are sharp and on the edge of threatening him. Rhys just laughs it off, though. There's a volatile mix of emotions very rapidly brewing in his gut. There's confusion, terror, and most predominantly there's a very rapidly consuming _anger_. He wants Rhys to shut the hell up, he wants to _grab this little asshole by the scruff of the neck and slam his stupid little skull into the glass until it breaks._  
  
"Lemme finish, huh? Lemme _finish._ " He's threatening Athena, and he's doing it while talking like _that_ man. He knows it, he'd recognize it anywhere.  
  
"You see that old, scared lookin' guy right there? Go on, wave your hand." He gestures towards the old man, and everyone's gazes fall towards the elderly man. Except for Timothy's. All he can do is stare at Rhys. "There he is! Alright. _That..._ is the last Atlas employee left on Pandora." He sounds so smug, so pleased with himself, like he knows how Athena is going to react to all of this.  
  
"It's..." Sashas speaking, but Timothy is too fixated on Rhys. "It's true."  
  
"Well, what are you freakin' waiting for?! Kill him!" In that moment, he swears he's not seeing some abandoned Atlas facility around him but in Jack's office back on _Helios._ Instead of Rhys he sees Jack, the newly self proclaimed CEO, and instead of Rhys's voice he hears Jack's, it's sharp, demanding, impatient, and full of unspoken threats he's eager to back up.  
  
"Shut _up,_ Rhys!"  
  
He pulls away from Athena, but that does absolutely nothing to subdue whatever Rhys has just set off inside of the former body double.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Got a little carried away there," He shakes his head and makes this sputtering sound, as if it helps to clear his head. "Won't happen again, cu-" He doesn't get to finish his sentence, because suddenly Timothy is there, and suddenly Timothy _punches_ him.

If you asked him when he started moving, he wouldn't be able to tell you. He's only aware of how he swings, and how his fist comes into contact with the company man's jaw as hard as it can. At any other point he'd feel disgusted with himself and how disappointed he feels when nothing breaks when his fist comes into full contact with the unsuspecting man's jaw.   
  
It knocks Rhys out cold, his head smacks against a crate, and his body crumples and slumps against it like a marionette who's strings have suddenly been cut. 

Someone grabs his arm before he gets the chance to even consider swinging again, and his head snaps towards Sasha, who has an iron grip on the his forearm so hard it actually hurts. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" His whole body is tense, like a wound up spring, and he doesn't budge.

" _What_ the _hell_ was _that_?" Loaderbot, despite it's limited and often monotonous tone, still manages to come across as bewildered and confused. Timothy only manages to let out a low growl and kicks the crate besides Rhys, Sasha roughly yanks at his arm again and hisses at him. "What is your _problem?_ " If there was ever a time where her distrust was the most evident, this would be it.

He doesn't get a chance to respond, and they don't get a chance to fight it out, because Vaughn shouts in confusion. Surprisingly, it's not because Timothy almost just broke his buddy's jaw. "Woah, woah what are you doing?!"

It's Athena who has the spotlight now, because she has the old man by the collar and has her blade to his throat. Sasha's grip remains firm and she pulls him along with far more strength than someone her size should warrant.  
  
"What's going on?! Why's everyone so excited?!"  
  
Honestly, he's trying to focus on what's happening, but he's still worked up from whatever display Rhys had put on mere moments ago. He can't really focus on anything that's being said and that's pretty damn frustrating, actually. Timothy is rough when he rips himself from Sasha's hold, and the woman glares at him, and tries to grab him again but he slaps her hand away from him and pushes past her.

When he grabs Athena's wrist roughly, his hands are trembling, and he's trying to keep himself under control so he's not recognized by the only conscious Hyperion worker. He's not sure how Rhys knows about Athena's vendetta, her vow to destroy Atlas, but even with Jack's facade so easily filling up the gaps where he needs it, he's still just _T_ _imothy_. And Timothy, agitated as he may be, knows this isn't going to solve anything.   
  
The little device that alters his voice does little to take away from the agitation and barely restrained anger in his voice. He doesn't seem to notice how Vaughn flinches at it, either. "Cut this shit _out_ , Athena! The hell good is this gonna do?" She doesn't answer him, just shoves him off as roughly as he dared to grab her moments ago.  
  
"Athena, stop!" Fiona is the one who stops her next, and Timothy moves, ready to pull her out of the way, because Athena is as agitated as he is, if only for different reasons.  
  
"I _can't_ , you don't understand. I made a _vow._ " Timothy's managed to quell the shaking of his hands enough, and he moves in what little space between her and Cassius there is. A vow? Really? To what? To who? All she's going to do is kill a freaked out old man. It won't bring her sister back, and it sure as hell won't make Athena feel better. She glares at him, an unspoken warning. He's not afraid of her. If she wanted to cut him down to get to Cassius she would have done it already.

Her gaze is ripped from his unseen face to Fiona as the con-artist pulls the hand which wields her blade away from the two men. "You didn't make that to her, you made it to yourself, and you're acting like there's no other choice. You don't have to do this."

She'll do better at talking Athena down then he will, both Timothy and Athena are in aggressive, agitated states. "This is _pointless_ , Athena." He's forcing his voice to sound calm, but you can still hear the emotion boiling underneath. And of all other things to suddenly feel, a pang of guilt strikes him for having grabbed her so roughly. He's never done something like that before, he hopes he hadn't hurt her.

Cassius finally speaks, gently nudging Timothy out of the way, and Tim obliges just enough for Athena to see his face. "I...am sorry for what happened to your sister." His voice is soft, genuine, and sincerely remorseful. Timothy lets out a shaky held in breath when Athena finally relaxes, though it takes a few agonizing seconds.

"Thank you." The situation finally loses some of it's tension, an Athena's grip on the man relaxes, she begins to lower her weapon.Timothy swears he hears something muffled by glass and he tenses. So does Athena, her grip on Cassius tightens, her blade is raised again, and Fiona jolts towards her in misunderstanding.

" _No!_ "  
  
"Quiet!" The gladiator hisses back at her, Fiona looks confused, but Timothy knows this isn't about Cassius anymore. She's noticed something is wrong as well, there's someone else here. Within moments whatever is now with them shatters the dome wall, crashes right through them, and directly at the group. Athena's  reflexes are quick and she shoves both Timothy and Cassius out of the way. Cassius tumbles but Timothy manages to gain his footing and the shove had been just enough to avoid the incoming figure's blow.

He manages to catch a glimpse just in time to realize the mass isn't just some creature, it's a _person_. A small chill runs along his spine in recognition, faint as it is. He tries to regain his footing and push himself forwards just as the massive man plows into the gladiator.  "Holy crap! What was that?!"  
  
He only makes it a few steps before the unknown assailant smashes through the glass on the opposite side with the gladiator in tow.

" _Athena!_ " Both him and Fiona call for her in tandem, rushing towards the newly made gaping hole in the glass.

They're being ambushed, he decidedly figures, as some odd object he can't recognize comes barrelling at them. Before he can yank Fiona back, it's wound itself around her legs, and the woman lets out a confused and startled shout as she wobbles right at the edge. Then Sasha shouts for _her_ , and Timothy manages to catch the woman's wrist before she could go tumbling down into the trees below.

"Of course." It's Vaughn, and his voice is barely audible across the room.

What? What does that mean? That can't be good, what does 'of course' mean? Hey!

Timothy turns to question Vaughn when he hears the familiar sound of someone shooting rockets. Goddamn _rockets_. His stomach drops and his grip on Fiona tightens. He only faintly notices Rhys is now conscious, or that Sasha has bolted over to her sister when the projectiles meet their target and everything goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like playing the role of Jack has left serious impact on Timothy, and under situations of extreme stress or when he's angry, or sometimes just at random he'll adopt Jack's personality, speaking, and/or mannerisms as both a habit and a way to cope. He also gets intrusive like thoughts of the Jack variety. 
> 
> He has a lot of problems and needs a lot of rest. 
> 
> Next chapter is going to be a real doozy so look forward to that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello!
> 
> I'm a little more nervous posting a chapter this time around!
> 
> I've read over this a few times and tried to fix any mistakes but it's not beta-read this time, so I apoligize if I missed anything! I actually just caved and wrote it all on Ao3 too, because apparently you can do that and save drafts kinda-sorta.
> 
> Also I apologize if the beginnings or ending of chapters feel forced or abrupt, I'm used to writing one-shots this is actually my first real attempt at anything multi-chapter. Oh, and if it interests anyone! I have a few references to what I imagine Tim's whole design is like? Maybe I'll clean them up and link them here next chapter.
> 
> I hope you all like it? This is all very new to me and I'm always super nervous about putting my work out into the wild.

And so that was how they met their eighth group member, Gortys. A little Atlas robot created to find a...vault. So that's what they were doing now, and he and Athena were in along for the ride. Athena more willingly than Timothy, though. Because frankly he is so _sick_ of vaults. One was enough, thank you very much.

There was a reason he never went back to the vault hunting business after he abandoned Helios, and took up residence as one of your _lovely_ local Pandorans instead. Nothing good has ever come from a vault, _ever_. Just giant monsters and a million and a half things that can ruin your life. Handsome Jack came from a vault. Sure the Jack before Handsome Jack had been a douche who had a hard on for being the hero, but the vault amplified his worst attributes but a hundred and gave him this... _thing_ for murder (well, _more_ murder). Not to mention it drove him right off the deep end, and he gets the sinking suspicion that even if Lilith hadn't punched that brand into his face, Jack would've still been absolutely out of his mind.   
  
He gets why people do it, for the thrill, the riches, the fame it begets, but Timothy had just been a college graduate with a creative writing degree who got fucked three ways from Sunday by student loans. And he had been desperate (and _stupid_ ) enough to agree to an interview for some mystery job. He wasn't even fully aware of the fact it was a body double gig until, you know, waking up from surgery. They claimed it to be the anesthetics, but even naïve, 'murder-free' Timothy had his hunches. Why the hell else would he have had a goddamn bomb planted in his face?

He supposes their reaspns for trying to get to this vault are better than most. At least from what they'll tell him, they just wanna make up for tem million dollars lost. Their whole story seems to just be about bad luck. A demotion, a failed con job, losing _ten million_ in a fit of betrayal. Amazingly he hadn't even been part of this story until the duo saved this ragtag team, probably their first big break in their whole adventure. So he can't be the one attributed to their horrible luck up until this point. He's sure tha won't last long, though, he has a penchant for attracting bad luck.

* * *

"Would you cut it _out?_ " It's Rhys's voice he hears, his head turns upwards. He'd been spacing out again. He's adjusting his scarf, more out of habit than necessity, finally bringing his attention completely back to the real world. A playing card dances in the air lazily,  floating daintily in his direction, landing face up on the ground. _Three of Spades._  
  
So she's still at it, huh?  
  
He kneels to pick it up just as Fiona flicks yet another card at Rhys's glaring face. _Someone_ is a single child. Anyone who has a sibling knows if you give them a reaction like that, they're just gonna keep going. Timothy smirks beneath his scarf in tandem with Fiona's own growing amusement at the middleman's annoyance. She tilts her head to the side, and with a teasing voice, she responds. "With you pouting like that? In your _dreams_. Keep sticking your lip out like that and I might actually might be able to stick the landing with one of these babies."  
  
Timothy finally takes a step forwards, towards the table and they both look up towards him. "And so mister mystery joins us." The doppelganger raises a brow and turns towards Fiona.  
  
"Mister mystery," He deadpans.

"Yup. I know you said your name is _Tim_ or whatever, but that's just so... _underwhelming_ , don't you think?"  
  
"And 'mister mystery' is better, how, exactly?"  
  
"I 'unno, but it's better than _Tim._ That's such a dorky name, you know that?" Timothy laughs at that, shaking his head.  Yeah, so maybe _Timothy_ isn't exactly the most impressive name, but he's pretty tired of using names that aren't his. He'll happily stick by Tim, even if it makes him sound like a nerd you'd shove into a locker (if he had his old voice, he's sure it wouldn't be far from the truth). Threatening or badass isn't really the vibe he's trying to go for to begin with.  
  
"It sounds like a lame superhero name, like if I called you _j_ _abber gal_." Rhys lets out a short laugh, and Fiona flicks a card at his face again, much to the middleman's chagrin. He quickly tries to swat it out of his vision, but her eyes never leave Timothy, and her hands are still on the deck of cards before she flicks one at _him_ and it bounces off his reflective goggles.

Tim has to admit, even if the whole vault hunting thing makes him wanna jump ship (and he plans to, he's said it a million times, and he'll say it again, he is _done_ with vaults), it's nice to be with other people again. Especially other people who can hold a conversation that isn't about murder, booze, sex, or loot. He tries to keep himself in contact strictly on  a need-to basis. To trade of buy and sell goods was often his only human interaction for the week that didn't involve _killing_ someone else.  
  
He lets out another laugh, unaffected by the flimsy card being flicked at his face and leans down to pick it up alongside the ones that had fallen to the floor, and the last one that has landed in Rhys's hair, he flinches at first, but when the former body double withdraws it, he gives Fiona another glare. Timothy idly begins to shuffle the small stack of cards for a few moments before he hands them over to her, despite Rhys's groan of protest. "Hey, cut your cyborg pal a break will you? You've been at it for at least twenty minutes now, how about a game of cards instead?"

She watches him for a few long seconds before a smile forms across her face, and she nods. She smoothly removes her feet from the tabletop and Timothy slides his own little pile towards her, which she expertly scoops up and slips in with the rest of them in her opposite hand. Rhys meanwhile offers Timothy a brief, grateful look that he doesn't respond to, only so to not lets Fiona catch on. She'll start chucking cards at both of them if she figures he did it only to get her to stop heckling Rhys. Because she _really_ gets a kick out of it.  
  
As she begins shuffling, she speaks. "So what are you betting, then?"  
  
Oh, wait, what, _seriously?_ He scoffs at her.  
  
"Bets? I wasn't aware we were at a _casino_." Fiona rolls her eyes in exasperation, but continues shuffling. "Sorry. Making a wager against a con artist with a reputation isn't on my top list of 'ways to lose all my money'." She looks like she wants to be offended, but he's pretty much right. So she shrugs and leans forwards.  
  
"Fine, if we're not taking any bets what're we playing? _Go Fish?_ " Her words are meant to be mocking, but the ex-vault hunter isn't going to cave at a few attempted pokes at his pride. He's feeling cheeky, as a matter of fact.  
  
He slides onto the sofa and rests his elbows on the smooth tabletop. "Now that you mention it, Old Maid sounds like a _fantastic_ time killer."  
  
Oh, man, the look she gives him is _priceless_. He's grinning under his scarf as she just gawks at him in exasperation. And Rhys seems to be getting a kick out of her speechlessness as well, trying to bite back a snicker as his shoulders shake just the tiniest bit. By the time she elbows Rhys and he lets out an 'ow!', she's returned to smirking, looking self assured. "You're serious, huh?" He nods, leans back, and crosses is arms across his chest.  
  
"Alright then, prepare to get your butt kicked, _Tim_."

* * *

Traveling is something he's gotten used to while on Pandora, but as it turns out, time passes a lot more quickly when you're with other people and enjoying yourself, and not scouting for salvage or scraping by by the skin of your teeth. By the time it's their third day on the road, time feels like it's flown by. He's decided, approximately one day in, that too much time has passed since he's been around proper company. Elpis had probably been the last time he'd been able to talk to a decent person without having to hide or pretend to be someone he wasn't. To put in some perspective, it's been almost five years since he's set foot on Elpis.  
  
By day two, everyone had taken to the idea of playing cards because, at the very least, it gave them something to _do._ Midday Rhys _somehow_ managed to find a small compartment that hadn't been violently ejected out of the back of the caravan, in it was a nice little stash of board games.  
  
"I haven't seen these in _years_ , Fi." Sasha remarks, and Fiona eagerly pries open the first dusty box containing Monopoly.

When they're taking breaks between long strides in their journey, Athena works with the girls, trains them, works them hard. Other times Sasha will drag Rhys and Vaughn out on a jog along the terrain around the vicinity. Sasha and Vaughn often come back doing fine while Rhys is wheezing and panting like he'll drop dead at any second. Sometimes they just goof off, Vaughn and Rhys playing games on Vaughn's fancy wrist watch, or even playing some Bunkers and Badasses, and nobody quite knows where Rhys got all the _stuff_ for it, but he refuses to tell, guarding it like a well hidden secret with a smug smirk.

They all take turns driving, Fiona, Sasha, Athena, Vaughn, Rhys, and Timothy. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes they feel adventurous and switch it up. Gortys tries to drive at least once, almost veers them off a cliff.

It's mildly disconcerting to Timothy that they're not sure where they're headed. Asking Gortys yields no answers, she knows which way to go but not what their final destination is, or its location. Though she speaks with so much optimism and excitement that it's hard to consider it being too far off. Unfortunately as the landscape shifts, and the first few days past, it's starting to give Timothy doubts. He even briefly suggests that it might not be on Pandora at all, but Gortys quickly insists otherwise. "No, it's here on Pandora, I know it! We'll be there soon, just trust me!!"  
  
He just hopes she's right, or they're looking for a whole lot of nothing.  
  
That's about...day four. Everyone's sort of settled into their roles by now, there's a sense of familiarity with their dynamic, everything feels far more cohesive now than they did at first. And Timothy feels he's finally getting a handle on what he's dealing with here, and is at least getting a glimpse of who these people all are. In turn they also seem to have adjusted to he and Athena's presence, and he has started to feel less like he's intruding. He feels more like an observer, and sometimes even a participant.

He won't say they trust him, no, especially not the sisters. Fiona is friendly enough, but she's a con artist, and that's part of what they do, act, make the people around them comfortable so they can inevitably swindle them. Sasha's distrust is far more evident and honest, even if it's slackened since their initial encounter. She's not always staring him down like he might try and choke someone, though. So there's improvement. But she's wary of him. Call it a hunch, but he's willing to guess it has something to with with that man named Felix.

Then there's the two Hyperion desk workers, and they seem more unnerved by Athena than Timothy, they can probably tell she's not a fan of Hyperion. Not that many _are_ , but Athena is a particularly worrisome presence, she's a goddamn assassin, for starters. Vault Hunter probably only becomes secondary on that list in comparison. Meanwhile they don't know anything about Timothy, but he's a far less threatening presence. He doesn't show any outward disdain for them, despite being Hyperion, and he tries to be as friendly as possible while keeping his distance. They're still Hyperion, desk workers as they may be, but they unknowingly have the potential to turn everything he's built up for himself down on Pandora into ash.

Finally, robots are pretty straight forward, robots are... _robots_. He doubts they have much opinion of he or Athena, but being informed that the Loaders have started to become more and more self aware makes him wonder sometimes. Speaking of loaderbot, it makes him nervous. It's nothing personal, the one accompanying the two Hyperion desk jockeys hasn't been anything but polite. Unfortunately, though, once he fled from Hyperion,  they became something he avoided like the plague. There had been one particularly nasty incident where Jack had caught onto him, and he'd had to fight his way through about twenty of the damn things before he lost the bastard's trail again. Gortys on the other hand reminds him of a claptrap. A much more competent, less obnoxious claptrap. But she's easier to...trust. As much as you can trust a machine with an unknown purpose guiding you to an unknown location...somewhere.

* * *

It's approximately a week in when they pass into the tundra. He doesn't realize it at first, nobody save for Athena, who was driving at the time, takes notice to the snow drifting past the windshield. But his scar is eager to start acting up in the shift in weather and pressure, and though it starts out as a dull ache (and he gets those fairly often, they come and go) he dismisses it. Well, until it's not just a dull ache and it's _throbbing._ Thankfully nobody really takes notice of his discomfort until Athena and Fiona switch spots. It's late at night and almost everybody else has drifted off to sleep, and even Rhys, who's standing near the little ladder leading to the roof of the caravan, looks like he's about to pass out while standing up.  
  
Timothy wishes he could sleep the pain off. But the aching will keep him up all night.  
  
He's trying to rub the scar through the cloth of his scarf when Athena approaches, near silent, and looms over his crouching form. He looks up at her and she's staring down at him with a look that seems like disapproval, but he recognizes is more her way of showing concern. God, she's bad at expressing herself.  
  
"Something's giving you trouble." It's not a question, but a statement, and he pauses before letting out a small laugh. Doing so makes where the scar runs along either side of his face burn, but he tries not to wince. He's just glad it's her who notices and not, say, Fiona. He doesn't doubt all the others are curious what he looks like, but Fiona seems like the type to make an elaborate scheme just to dramatically reveal it to them. She tries to act more mature, but she's just as much of a dork as the rest of her team.  
  
"Y'know how it is, cold weather always gives me a hard time." She wouldn't _know_ , but she understands. It's hard to read Athena, but she nods and her expression is  one of sympathy. She moves to lean in her usual spot against the caravan's interior wall and he idly wonders if by the time this is all over, there won't be an Athena shaped indent in that very spot.  
  
The caravan is overtaken by a calm silence, the motor is humming, and it's relaxing, until she sticks something in his face. It's too close, and he tilts himself away from it so he can figure out what he's looking at. The gladiator gives it a small shake and he immediately recognizes it as the sound of pills shaking within a bottle. He squints at it and huffs, craning his head upwards towards her from his crouched position, and she's staring back, and shakes it again. "Take it, there's no point in suffering in silence like that. You need to be in top condition. Just in case."  
  
That's her way of being kind, he knows that. So he smiles softly under all the layers that hide him. "Alright, alright. I get it."  
  
He quickly snatches the bottle from her and uncaps it with well practiced ease. He doesn't even bother to ask how many he should take, he just pops two of them dry (and without removing the scarf) and swallows. He's used to pills, taking them, it had been weird for a while suddenly taking a variety of medications to none at all, and it'd been hell after he'd fled from Jack. He's lucky that when he went cold turkey he just went through withdrawals, that, you know, didn't kill him.

When he's done he lifts the bottle back up towards her and shakes it right back at it, she takes it from him and slips it back with the rest of her belongings. And then there's silence again. From his crouching position he allows himself to fall on his ass on the floor instead and close his eyes, Athena's presence at his side comforting for him where to most it would be terrifying. Hopefully he'll get some sleep before--  
  
Rhys is talking.  
  
He furrows his eyebrows. He can't make out what the man is saying, but he's talking. To himself, probably. He's noticed the middleman does that sometimes. It's weird, though, for sure. He tries to ignore it, but Athena speaks up, having taken notice to his odd habit and Timothy opens an eye, craning his head towards her.

"Who are you talking to?"  
  
Timothy sighs heavily, and she looks down at him for a moment before focusing his attention in on Rhys again with an intense, almost angry expression. She doesn't mean to look tat way, she's not trying to be intimidating, but that's just how she is. Timothy moves only so he can get a better view of Rhys, now, and he nudges Athena's leg with his elbow, but she doesn't even look down at him. And Rhys fumbles over his words. "Oh, you, uh, you know just- just myself."  
  
Either he is a very bad liar or Athena seriously terrifies him. Or both, could always be both.  
  
Athena pushes herself away from her spot against the wall and Timothy frowns. She probably suspects something is up. And while it's weird, it's not exactly an isolated incident. Rhys is kind of weird in general, talking to himself, staring at seemingly nothing, getting startled when nothing happens, staring at people or things with various expressions that never seem to fit the situation.  
  
Rhys lets out a tight, nervous laugh, and Timothy finally pushes himself up to his feet. "I, uh- I suddenly...need to go...to the roof."  
  
They both watch in silence as Rhys then turns their back to then and stiffly climbs up the ladder to the roof of the caravan. And when the little door shuts with a 'thunk', there's silence again, until Timothy finally cuts through it. "That was...something."  
  
"It was."  
  
The sharpness of her words makes Timothy's head turn towards her, and she's still staring at the hatch on the roof, eyebrows furrowed and he's actually kind of worried she's going to stalk after him.  
  
"I think you might've just scared the poor guy." She turns to look at him and looks annoyed rather than insulted. He shrugs his shoulders. "Glaring at him like that, I mean."  
  
Athena is a scary lady, but if Rhys thinks she's scary now, he should see her killing people, that's when she's really scary.  
  
"That doesn't explain him talking to himself."  
  
Timothy sighs, shoulders sagging, head shaking. "Just...let it go, Athena. You know how those pencil pushers are, Pandora's finally getting to him. Probably." Both of their gazes follow right to the hatch again.  
  
Rhys isup there for a while. A long while, and Timothy starts to wonder if he's alright, maybe Athena really did freak him out  _that much,_ orrr...maybe he fell off. By now the pain in his face is dulled significantly, so it's been a little too long for some kid in office attire to be sitting on the roof in the middle of the tundra. Athena's settled down, too, so maybe that'll help. Assuming he didn't fall off and is freezing together somewhere behind them. Ah, hell, someone should go check. Might as well be him.He gives the hatch up to the roof of the caravan a good hardy knock before pushing it open and he's met with cold air on his mostly hidden face. Rhys is still up here, good he hasn't fallen off, and he's hugging his knees to his chest, and watching Timothy as he climbs up to the top and shuts the hatch behind him.  
  
He glances briefly at Loaderbot and Gortys and offers a wave, to which Gortys waves back, making a cute little happy face at him. Then, his attention is back on Rhys. "You're gonna freeze to death up here, you know."  
  
"What? No, no, I'm...I'm fine."  
  
If Rhys could see Timothy's expression, he'd realize how utterly unimpressed he looks.  
  
"Look, you can act all tough guy out here and lose your last five fingers to frostbite, or you can suck it up and get back in the nice, warm, toasty caravan and cuddle up with your pals. Hell, what are you even _doing_ up here, huh? Trying to avoid Athena?" He laughs and his shoulders move in time. "Trust me, if she had it out for you or whatever, you'd be dead by now. It's nothing personal, she's just..."  
  
Rhys stares at him when he fails to come up with an apt description and makes some vague, nonsensical hand gestures.  
  
"Terrifying?" He finally interjects, and Timothy pauses before letting out another laugh.  
  
"Well, I suppose that's _one_ way to-"  
  
"Oh-- ooh! Hey, hey!" It's Gortys, she springs back to life and spins around towards them, suddenly cutting Timothy off. "It's there, somewhere over there!" They both turn towards her, and she's eagerly pointing off in the distance ahead of them. He's not sure what the hell he's looking at, at first. Maybe a building, but it was round and was a light purple-blue. Sort of like a bubble.  
  
How hadn't he noticed _that_ when he came up here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned multiple POVs in the first chapter but I think for this fic it'll just be from Timothy's perspective, and I'll write oneshots based on other character's points of view. Which will be a thing, because if you think I don't wanna write about how everyone sees Timothy, you're wrong. 
> 
> Also, since I'm already working on chapter three, I just want to say it's really hard to find a balance between canon dialogue and taking my own liberties to make it new and interesting to read. And since my only frame of reference for some of this stuff is Youtube (my version of tftbl is super glitchy and my save files are constantly getting corrupted, but I have actually played it. Like three times.), and there's not really a lp that goes the Jack route, I'm going to be taking even more liberties with the dome in particular. 
> 
> Which is really fun to write, by the way! Things should be getting more exciting! I'm going to try and pace it out evenly, but all of this is still pretty new to me.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **NOTE:** i've edited this a few times. it was kind of a mess with some spelling and pacing and some other stuff because if felt i wrote timmy a little too harshly. my bad. hopefully it's a little bit better.
> 
> finally drifting from canon stuff!!! here's some original timmy writing.
> 
> i've been eager to get this out and i don't have anyone to look it over for me, so any grammar mistakes, spelling errors, runon sentences, etc. are my bad. even so this one was fun to write.
> 
> other stuff: I've been trying to post bi-daily or even daily with chapters unfortunately our internet went out for a while and i started to run low on medication, yadda yadda, the usual, that's why this hasn't been posted until now. 
> 
> also i replayed tftbl and realized because my only real point of reference was someone else's playthrough there are some minor errors because one of my points of reference is a don't trust jack playthrough (aka i TOTALLY forgot dumpy). eventually i'll go back and add those things later!
> 
> this is a super long author's note but i also wanted to say the amount of support i got while i was away is just? holy crap, guys. i have to say while i was gone i went back and fourth about whether this was any good or not but coming back to comments telling me how you're enjoying it really makes me feel so much better! i can't thank you all enough and i'm super glad you're enjoying it!

He returns to the world of the living reluctantly, and with a splitting headache.

It's heavy and thrumming in the back of his skull and behind his eyes, and there's a particularly sharp pain from his right temple that comes to greet him as he wakes. He lay there for some time, still, before taking in a slow breath, trying to clear his fuzzy and clustered brain. It feels like everything is covered in a thick layer of resin. Ugh, that sounds gross. He wiggles his fingers as awareness comes creeping towards him, and he brings a hand up to the sharp pain at his head. It's a decision he immediately comes to regret, the pain flares up, and shoots right through his skull and his entire head feels like it's about to burst. It's enough to make his vision blur, his eyes wet, and a string of swears slur from his mouth gracelessly. 

_Son of a chode gargling **fuck**._

He's swearing and grinding his teeth for what feels like an agonizing length of time until the pain finally subsides, and becomes manageable once again. Then he can _finally_ catch his breath.

He's not so eager to try to push himself up for the first time, but he has to  _eventually._ So, after his aching brain decides he's been laying face first in the dirt for  _too damn long,_ he tries to finally move his useless body. His vision goes fades in and out and he groans, he's forced to settle for a half lean within seconds of getting up from the ground. He feels dizzy, and it's not doing any favors for his stomach. Thankfully, he manages to eventually sit himself upright against a tree without hurling up his last meal.

It's sometimes good to count the little victories just as much as the big ones.   
  
He sits there, doing his best to gather his thoughts together through the pain in his head and the sickness swirling around in his gut, and eventually he manages to scrape enough together for recollection to come to him. They'd been jumped, ah, right. By who, he wasn't sure. What he _was_ sure of was that they'd had rockets shot at them. Goddamn  _rockets._ If they'd been trying to kill everyone, they certainly hadn't been goofing around.

The explosion probably either blew everyone else into unidentifiable chunks or sent them flying. You know, like he...had...

Ughhhghghrrrf...  
  
_No, don't think about falling, or how far you fell, or that you fell at all. That's bad, don't do that.  
_

God, he hates heights. Just thinking about it makes him feel ten times worse.

In an attept to distract himself he starts looking over himself for any broken bones, but aside from bruising up his right shoulder and a head wound he must have procured somewhere in the fall, nothing seems broken. Maybe the trees were enough to slow his descent, he should probably be thankful, but right now he's anything but. How is it he's always lucky enough to avoid death, but not lucky enough to avoid situations like these? He lets out a slow exhale, trying to settle his stomach and keep himself from having yet another dizzy spell.

The air is filled with the scent of heavy vegetation and fire. It's an entirely unpleasant scent, and it's not doing any of him any favors. He lets out a slow exhale and lifts his head to get a good look at his surroundings. Sure enough there's the observatory they'd been in, now ablaze. He rubs the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. The body double waits a moment longer, until he's sure he won't get sick, and then he pushes himself up to his feet using his forearms against the tree's rough bark. He immediately wobbles as his vision once again swims before settling. He closes his eyes and counts to ten.  
  
Well, this sure is a bitch of a situation.  
  
He brings his hand to the wound at his head a bit more gently this time, and while it still throbs it's not the searing pain he'd felt before. He lets out a sigh and smears the sharp scented liquid from his face against the back of his gloved hand. It wasn't too bad, not a serious injury, in any case.  
  
But he could seriously use those pain killers that Athena--  
  
Wait.

Shit, _Athena._

He inhales sharply and twists his neck to look around. His chest tightens up when he sees nothing except for familiar and unfamiliar vegetation alike surrounding him.  
  
"F-fuck," His voice is scratchy, and tired. The external voice modulator used to disguise _another_ modulated voice crackles, and he groans softly. He gives it a tap and the static stops. He clears his throat and takes a small step from the tree, and he's steady, he doesn't wobble again, finally regaining his footing. Before he does anything else, though, he grabs his pistol and examines it, making sure it's fully loaded before he pulls himself away from the cover of the tree, and into a small opening among the unfamiliar flora.

He's scanning the surrounding area, gun at the ready while his other taps at his ECHO communicator and brings it to life with a soft static filled sputter. "You there? 'thena? Hello?" The other end is nothing but dead air, and he swallows a growing lump in his throat. He waits for a few more seconds. licking his dry lips uncertainly. He tries again. "It's Timothy. Athena, are you there?"  
  
Nothing, he's getting a whole lot of nothing. He's tightly gripping his weapon and straining his ears for anything. He needed to find her. He wasn't worried about her capabilities, but he was here to back her up. There's a feeling in the pit of his gut that won't leave him, either. A sense of impending dread.  
  
For what feels like far too long there's nothing to be seen or heard and then, finally, he's greeted with something outside of scuttling varkid in the foliage. There's a low rumble of a vehicle and he strains his ears to locate it's direction. He knows he's likely to end up in a fight, but it's a direction to go, and maybe, just maybe, Athena will be there.  
  
It's not an easy trudge through this damn place, though. It's like a viciously thick jungle, and the beauty from before has long since been lost to the situation at hand. He's following the sound,  and aside from that there's nothing else, no signs of life, he doesn't see any of the others. It's beyond overgrown in this place, he hadn't set foot outside of the observatory until he'd been shot out of it, but it's in a clear state of neglect and disrepair.  For a long while it's just him ducking and weaving through foliage until he sees a pathway.  
  
He manages to clamber his way out of it and towards a tree and leans against it. Of all the things to be expected, Gortys shooting down the pathat an alarming speed wasn't anywhere near the top of his list, and it takes him by surprise. He doesn't even get time to shout for her before she's out of sight.  But he hears the vehicle coming before he sees it, so he's prepared for that. He grunts in annoyance when he recognizes it, it's that stupid piece of junk Vallory had gone off in. He catches glimpse of the bullet hole in the bumper and smirks to himself.  
  
But he doesn't get to feel smug for long. Rhys is soon running along the path, too. Chasing after the car by _foot._  
  
Timothy scowls.  
  
_Phew, he really pissed you off didn't he, Timmy? You know, could always shoot him, kiddo._ _Just pull the trigger and **pop!**_ _It's not that hard, you've done hundreds of times._

It might have actually been tempting if the little voice trying to coax him into it hadn't belonged to Jack, because it reminds him that shooting Rhys is what _Jack_ would do. And he's not Jack, he's Timothy goddamn Lawrence. That's more than enough to stay his hand, and he lets Rhys continue run on by like a _moron,_ but at least he's completely unscathed. Alive. Although Timothy does nothing to aid the middleman.

  
Unlike Rhys, he doesn't make a move to chase. He's not stupid, that car had a massive turret on it, and the best he can hope is Rhys runs out of steam before someone decides shooting at him is a good idea. Right now he needs to find Athena, and nothing about what he'd just witnessed involved her. He hears shouting within moments of stepping out into the open and he ducks out of the way, behind a tree just as a spray of bullets buzzes past him. _What is this, huh? A bandit parade?_  
  
"We know you're there, you sniper _prick!_ "  
  
Timothy grunts and pokes his head just enough to get a look at his new opponents.  
  
Just two. He's handled worse. He takes quick notice of one's SMG before he ducks his head back and his grip tightens on his rifle. He can hear their footsteps approaching. His gaze drifts around, taking in anything he can possibly use. He could try to lose them, but in a place this small and closed off, it won't be particularly hard to track him down, and he's not leaving without Athena. And while Athena might seem cold at first, she's not going to leave the others behind, either. He inhales near silently. He needs to flank them, then. Take 'em out.

"August told us about what you did to Kelly! Don't think you're gonna get away with it, asshole!"  
  
Of course to get to any cover, he has to step out into the open first. There's no way he's going to get around them unnoticed. But it's either that or sit here and wait for them to reach him and shoot him where he stands. His options are limited, and he has to make his choice, fast. He grinds his teeth together, braces himself, and bolts. Bullets buzz by him in an instant, the two men are shouting at him with colorful insults, he's sure, but he doesn't have the privilege to sit in and listen to it without ending up full of lead.  
  
As he's trying to avoid gunfire (and he's doing a damn good job, the arid parts of Pandora aren't much for cover, so he's at a real advantage here), his brain is already working at top speeds, formulating the best plan of action. He'd happily blow them up with a grenade, or maybe ten, but that would only draw more attention to himself, and more of these guys would follow suit. So the best thing to do is a distraction, and stick to the flanking plan.  
  
Luckily he's got two great distractions with him at all times.

The first suitable form of cover he finds, he bounds towards, skidding to a stop. He can hear the gunfire and the shouting and he _really_ hopes they aren't calling for backup just as he is.

He brings his wristwatch up close, what was once a pristine silver is now scratched and chipped, the shine rubbed clean by the unforgiving Pandoran sands. It's been altered to hell and back, too. But it still _works_ and on Pandora that's all you can ask for. He doesn't even need to think about the sequence of little buttons he needs to press on the time piece, it's become second nature to him over time, and he snatches up his gun again at the sound of familiar constructs digstructing at either of his sides.  
  
He's had some improvements done to the hardware. He didn't do them himself, but Janey knew a guy who knew a guy, and...

Alright, so maybe it was _Pickle_ who helped him out. So what? He'd been an English major not a goddamn programmer, no matter what what the body double program meant. That didn't magically give him the ability to completely alter an AI (or two), dammit. And that sneaky little brat had a hell of a way with machines.

He's met with two hidden faces. Nonetheless they're familiar. The two constructs manage to reflect his appearance perfectly, and he's thankful for that. They'd make pretty crummy fakes if they didn't manage to look like him. The two are immediately alert, keeping themselves low with Timothy until the shooting and the shouting resumes. The one who immediately starts to perk up, and hums in approval is the one he's dubbed 'T1', the other one who seems to tense and scan the area is 'T2'. Also sometimes referred to and 'this' and 'that' respectively.  
  
"And here we were starting to worry you forgot about us." It's T1 who speaks, he sounds excited already at the prospect of a tussle, and Timothy can see that the AI is twitchy and full of anticipation already. He's just itching for a fight, even if the digi-Jack manages to keep it's voice low.  
  
"What's the situation, boss?" T2 sounds much less excited, more serious and focused. That one has already drawn a digistructed copy of Timothy's own pistol.  
  
"Need a distraction, gotta flank 'em. After that? Find 'thena." The two constructs take a moment to glance at him silently, T2 nods, but T1's gaze lingers. He swears he can feel the AI smirking at him.  
  
"Athena? Really? Damn its been ages since we've seen her! You didn't even let us come by and say hello? You're so mean, y'know th-" There's shooting again, this time it's way closer, and Timothy looks between the two and they both nod.  
  
It's T1 who bolts out from behind cover, kicking a stray rock at one of the men and letting out a boisterous and mocking laugh coupled with condescending insults. That's Timothy's chance to make a bolt for it.  
  
Unfortunately one of Vallory's men still manages to spot a glimpse of him. "H-hey, what the hell is-?"

T2 takes that as his chance to make a shot, and it does well to pull the man's attention away from the real thing and towards the second digi-jack. "What the hell?! There are two of him! The fuck's going on here?!"

Confusion is his go to tactic when grenades or a well placed headshot aren't enough. These two are invaluable, and he's more than sure he'd be dead a hundred times over if it weren't for the doubles. Using his face for shock value is only something he can risk to do so many times before someone gets away and rumors start to spread that Handsome Jack lived, or worse, they figure out the truth and everyone and their mother is after his skin. Mistaking him for Jack or because he's a body double, it doesn't matter.  
  
They're focused on the digi-jacks now, and he finally gets to their blind spot, and he has a good shot. Timing sucks, though, because the face of his watch flickers a warning. T2's been taken down. He doesn't really need to see the warning on the device, though, because he sees the guy with the SMG get a good shot on the quieter of the two and unloads a whole clip into him.  
  
Which only brings more confusion to the men when the construct explodes into pixels that dissipate into thin air instead of blood and guts. It seems T2's taken this as a hint to get serious and so he jumps into the foliage, the men pull themselves from their confusion and shoot after the lone AI in the thick, unruly foliage.

There's an explosion in the distance, but Timothy doesn't have any time to focus on it.

He doesn't waste much time taking the shot, it's not clean, it doesn't pop the guy's head open like a watermelon or anything, but the bullet goes straight through the man's sternum and it's more than enough to make the goon drop dead after a few seconds.The other bandit lets out an undignified scream as the shot rings out and his buddy drops dead, blood pooling beneath his rapidly cooling body and soaking into the loamy earth beneath their feet. It's a suffice distraction, good enough to allow T1 enough time to burst out of the foliage and slam their last opponent into the ground.

The goon still manages, even amidst his panic to get a few shots in on the Digi-Jack at far too close range.

T1 is flickering in and out and Timothy is pulling himself out of cover. In the construct's other hand is a replica of Timothy's own handgun, much like the one T2 had had earlier, and without hesitation he unloads it into the man's chest, muzzle pressed right against his ribs.

There's a sickly gurgling sound that only lasts a few moments before the man is dead, and the Digi-Jack continues to flicker in and out of existence, as if struggling to stay corporeal. It doesn't actually hurt them to be shot at, but they're still solid enough to take hits, and after enough damage is done they inevitably dissipate. And then he's forced to wait, because it's a taxing process, being destroyed like that. It's one of the only downsides to a more advanced AI, they take longer to be sent out again. T1 only glances at him before flickering out of existence, probably only holding onto his form long enough to take the bastard out. Then, Timothy is left alone in silence.

Tim isn't sure where he is, though. He can see the burning observatory that Cassius had once called home, but it's not a good point of reference when he doesn't know where remotely anything else is in this neglected artificial ecosystem. So he tries to trace his steps back to the road where he'd seen Gortys, the vehicle, and then Rhys run by, while trying, in what he knows is probably a pointless attempt, to contact Athena once more.  
  
"Athena? Athena, come in."  
  
He's met with garbled static at first, and he hesitates. He thinks he hears a voice, and a sense hope washes over him. He's at the road now. "Athena! Thank god, hey, can you-"  
  
There's two loud sounds, two incredibly loud, echoing explosions off in the distance. The unmistakable sound of a rocket launcher being fired. But what what really makes his blood run cold is that he hears it through the ECHO communicator as well, it's so loud that it causes the ECHO to crackle and momentarily blow out, he winces. But that doesn't stop him from immediately bolting in the direction of the explosions. He's not trying to be sneaky any more, and thankfully for him nobody is dumb enough to get in his way. "Athena? _Athena?!_ Can you hear me? Answer me!"  
  
Her end is oddly silent, though he eventually hears vague sounds from the ECHO but they're too far away to really understand, he hears vague murmurs he can make out to be voices. A muffled scream. His heart feels like it's about to burst out of his chest. Shuffling, _dragging sounds_ , he hears voices now, and he can actually understand them this time.  
  
"--ith'll be real happy to see this wretched piece of assassin trash hauled in." Athena? Oh _fuck, oh **fuck.**_  
  
He's barely even listening to whatever else is being said, now. His heart is pounding in his ears, and he only really catches whatever that horrible fucking woman he recognizes as Vallory says at the very end. "D'you feel that, Athena? _Now_ it's over."

The rage that suddenly swallows him at that sound of her voice is palpable. He grinds his teeth to keep himself from screaming through the ECHO in hopes that she hears him, hears the threats that are bubbling within his throat and swirling in his mind. When he gets his hands on her, she's not making it out of this alive or even in one piece.  
  
_Atta boy, Timmy._

* * *

Maybe barrelling towards the commotion hadn't been the wisest choice, but he's seeing red, and when he catches sight of Vallory he couldn't care less how stupid his decisions are. All he knows is she's going to regret whatever she did, he'll make damn well sure of it. It's amazing he doesn't get shot, actually _._

They notice him just in time, and her goons are quick to point most of their guns at him. His eyes are scanning the area rapidly and he barely manages to skid to a stop and avoid being pistol whipped right in the face by one of her goons. But it leaves an opening and Timothy punches the man and sends him flying. He hears shouts of protest from the others and a warning shot is sent into the air that manages to get Timothy to stop.

His chest is burning from lack of oxygen, but somehow his voice still manages to hold a commanding air to it, one that never belonged to him to begin with, and it's steeped in anger. "Where the _hell_ is Athena?" Vallory, that _witch,_ looks him over, there's a sneer on her face, and it turns from that to a look of smug satisfaction.  
  
"Oh, right. I knew I was forgetting _something._ " He growls threateningly under his breath and the fingers of his free hand twitch, eager to grab this monster of a woman and tear open her throat.

Timothy Lawrence is hard to anger, and when he's been pissed off, he often expresses it in far less violent tendencies- but right now it's coupled with the impending dread from earlier and it's manifesting itself in aggression that feels foreign even to him.

Athena isn't here, he knows he'd heard Vallory and others he hadn't recognized but _Athena_ isn't here. Where the hell is she?

"Listen here you ugly _hag,_ I-"  
  
"Stop it, _please!_ " Gortys steps forwards on strange new appendages, but Timothy's blood is boiling too much for him to give a damn. It actually makes Vallory pause, to look between him and the little robot briefly before finally settling on Gortys. If he was in a better state, maybe he would have noticed the whole situation around him, and how there had been something being discussed when he came barrelling in, ready to start a fight.

He hates how Vallory seems so calm, how smug she looks, and how he's vastly outnumbered.

"There, there little one. As long as your little friends behave themselves," Her eyes drift towards Timothy and he growls in response. "Nobody needs to get hurt."  
  
If Athena is hurt, he's going to make life hell for this lady.  
  
"I'll tell you what you need to know, please just promise you won't hurt anyone." Gortys's little voice is scared and pleading, and Fiona, sensing Tim's rage, and feeling much of her own snarls in a tone not too different from Timothy's.  
  
"Don't trust her, Gortys!"  
  
There's a soft, familiar click, something metal pressed to the small of his back, and he knows it's a gun, he doesn't need to look. "Drop it." Timothy turns his head towards whichever one of these ballsy assholes decided pointing a gun at him would do anything to change the situation. He quickly recognizes it to be that blonde kid with the piercings, and he grinds his teeth together.  
  
" _Fuck_ you." And he doesn't drop it. No, instead he's about ready to hit the younger man upside the head with his gun, even if all logic dictates he'll die right and here and now for it. Not that he ever gets the chance. The man grabs his wrist and twists the gun from his hand before he even gets a chance. He shoves Timothy to the ground, gun pressed to his skull.

The entire group is focused on the brief scuffle, Gortys lets out a plead that Timothy's mind can't care enough to focus on. Instead he's focusing on the man keeping him pinned down, but he can't get himself free. Even Vallory is silent, her smug expression falling at Timothy's sheer stubbornness. She steps forwards towards him and the younger man keeping him held down and looks him over.  
  
"Please! Don't hurt him!" God, he should be thankful Gortys is stepping in, but he's more angry and worries about _Athena._

She'd _better_ be alright.  
  
Vallory stares down the blonde man and crosses her arms over her chest. "Not so rough." She hisses softly, and the man's grip relents. The behemoth of a woman kneels down to Timothy's level and the the doppelganger wishes he could spit in her face. The man on top of him relents at her words, muttering an apology and yanking Timothy up to his feet. But he still has a gun to his head.

Then, the queen pin returns her focus to Gortys. "Oh, don't mind them, they're just being sore. Besides, if you don't tell me, I might have to start hurting people again," Her gaze drifts up towards Timothy in a not so vague threat.

The anger is starting to settle, still simmering, but no longer threatening to boil over. Now the situation is starting to settle in. The predominant emotion filling him through and through now is that returning _dread._ But not dread for himself, or even the people here, but for Athena. Fuck he needs to know she's alright, he needs to know where she is, what _happened._ And a million possibilities are running through his head and each is worse than the last.

They...they didn't...

They _wouldn't._  
  
"And you don't want that, do you?"  
  
"No...!" Poor Gortys, and Timothy is just making this harder for her.  
  
"Now...tell me about the Vault of the Traveler." That puts all his thoughts to a halt. This is- this is about a vault?

"The...the vault of the traveler teleports all over the universe, only staying at one spot for a few minutes before blinking away. But...! Once I have my last piece, the beacon that's up on Helios I can summon the vault and hold it here. Then you collect treasure, or...something." Gortys pours out answers as Vallory questions her. But all Timothy can do is let out a sharp, bitter laugh.

A vault, all of this for a fucking vault. He hates them, god does he hate these _stupid_ vaults _._  
  
Vallory's attention is on him, then it drifts to Fiona. It goes back and fourth between the two of them. Finally, she speaks.  
  
"Just look at you two. So angry. Is this about Athena?" His breath catches in his throat and he feels the anger spark back in his gut. Like she'd flipped a switch within him in an instant.  
  
"Athena had noth-"  
  
"Where the _fuck is she?_ " His voice rises dangerously, he's practically shouting, and it's only to keep him from choking out, begging to know she's alrightHe doesn't mean to cut off Fiona like that, but he needs to know. He's angry, but even more than angry he's terrified. Athena is a constant, she always seems invincible. And the fact that she's not here means what feels like the impossible. He'd never once seen her vulnerable, let alone see her lose a a fight. So what the hell did they  _do?_ His unseen gaze is fixed on Vallory and for a moment she contemplates his words before finally speaking. "And here I thought _Fiona_ was angry."  
  
She's a monster of a woman, and she approaches Timothy and stares him down. "Maybe I should have had those two wait to drag you off as well." He lurches forwards, but the blonde hair punk grabs him by the back of his coat, yanking him back, and the gun is pressed to his skull even harder than before.  
  
"Answer me, you ug-" He never manages to finish his sentence. Her stature isn't just for show, and the punch to his gut knocks the wind out of him and nearly makes him double over, but he holds his ground, wheezing, and somehow managing to keep his unseen gaze locked with her own. Gortys yells in protest once more.

"S'f...fine." Is all that Timothy manages out, trying to ease the robot's worry with what he imagines is little success. Then a silence passes between them, Vallory staring him over as he refuses to relent. And then she smiles, as if satisfied by something he'd done. She steps away and lets out a pleased hum.

"I suppose by now they're headed to Sanctuary, your friend Athena has some heinous crimes to pay for, and as I'm sure you know Lilith and the Crimson Raiders are _eager_ to speak with her."  
  
The anger flickers out instantly, all he feels now is horror. It takes far more effort to speak, and his voice doesn't hold the strength it had moments ago. "Wh- _what?_ "

Oh, god.  
  
He needs to find her.

Timothy doesn't know Lilith well, but he knows Roland died at Jack's hand, and Athena and him had worked for Jack and he needs to get to her before _-_  
  
"She got in my way, and since I'm feeling generous today, I'll give you some advice." He grinds his teeth together, the woman cutting through his thoughts like a sharp blade. "If you know what's good for you, you won't do the same."

 _Or what?_  
  
He wants so badly to bite back at her despite the terror, it's how he copes and how he always has, but he doesn't get a chance.

There's the sound of squealing tires as the caravan of all things comes into view. The people who come out are unfamiliar, two men, one with a prosthetic limb and a scar on his head and the other with an ugly mustache. "Now listen up. Under normal circumstances, your rotting corpses would already be getting torn apart by skags right now. But there are _not_ normal circumstances. And with that last piece being on Helios I can't think of a better crew than two Pandoran con-artists and a Hyperion stooge to figure out a way to get it for me."

Helios, wait, what's up on Helios? In his anger induced haze he must have overlooked that detail. Do they mean Gortys's piece...?

Even though he's confused, it doesn't go unnoticed that Timothy isn't one of the aforementioned con-artists or Hyperion stooge. Does she intend to kill him? Well, before the rest of them, anyways. He knows how this shit works, he knows how people like Vallory work. She doesn't intend to let any of them live by the end of this.

_She's just another bandit.  
_

Vallory's looking over all of them, including him, in fact her gaze lingers on him somewhat longer than the others, but eventually it settles on Fiona.  
"What do you say?"  
  
The con-artist is struggling underneath a massive rocket launcher, she's glaring at Vallory, looks ready to spit venom as she tries to pry herself out from under the enormous weapon keeping her pinned. Timothy wants to tell the older woman to fuck off, but even if he wanted to, Fiona speaks before he gets the chance. She's stopped struggling and has a look of defeat and her voice is full of resignation. "Yeah, okay. We'll- we'll get you the piece."  
  
When had Fiona become the leader? He should probably be more offended.

"Well that's just lovely." The change of tone, hell, everything this lady does is getting under his skin. "And here I thought I was going to have to stab somebody." Her eyes land directly on Timothy, and the doppelganger scoffs at her.  
  
"That supposed to _scare_ me?" His voice is still rough from the punch to the stomach, but it doesn't take away the snark in his tone. That was one thing he had over this lady, he wasn't afraid of her. She's nothing special, she's the same as the rest of the shitty gang leaders who think they're hot shit on this horrible rock of a planet. 

Vallory doesn't even dignify him with a response, instead she turns to drag the massive rocket launcher off of Fiona.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i'm finally getting used to taking liberties with some stuff here. i totally forgot to mention or even imply the digi-jacks would play a role but i love them. i also don't think timothy is a particularly violent person, but coupled with his fear for athena's well being and vallory quickly acquiring a high spot on timothy's shit list he got pretty nasty. also he just tolerates way less bs. 
> 
> i also reeeeeeally struggled with coming up with aliases for the digi-jacks, i know they're not good labels but i don't wanna use actual names either. if i come up with something better i'd definitely fix that up. 
> 
> if you're interested, i have a [tumblr](https://taiketsuenmi.tumblr.com/) where you can interact with me and such! i'm always happy to take requests and even just chat about stuff!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you somehow managed to see this the first time when I posted it by accident please ignore it, oh my god. It wasn't finished. It was inevitable I'd mis-click eventually please I'm dying. 
> 
> I'm seriously sorry this one took so long though, I know last chapter I mentioned every other day but things have been kinda stressful at home and I had to sorta catch up on the writing routine from while I was away. To compensate this chapter ended up being super duper long (like, 10,000 words long, don't ask how that happened).
> 
> But the good news? I've pretty much got how this is going to go and end settled in my noggin, and while it's liable to change it means I'll absolutely finish this fic.
> 
> Also this one isn't beta-read and i looked it over a few times but i really wanted to just get it out of my system so apologies for any errors. i've been looking at it way too long.

It seems like Tim's bad luck finally caught up to them. In fact, he couldn't think about how this situation could get any worse. Athena is gone, they're all being held at gun point by Vallory's thugs, and everything that had been looking good up until this point had fallen apart, shattered into many, tiny pieces at their feet.

The world loves fucking with him, bad luck seems to follow him everywhere, sometimes he wonders if he's lucky, or not that it's never been bad enough to get him killed.

This only comes to mind because he has to wonder why Vallory or her boys haven't shot him yet. As far as they're aware he's not of any use, just some mercenary friend of Athena's who isn't of any real use. Even Athena's own history with Hyperion is strained, and if they know about that, that would be his only known tie to Hyperion. Extremely loose, not worth it. He's just some _guy._

Still, nobody stops him as he makes his way to the caravan and opens the door.

The girls are already there, talking among themselves, trying to come up with a plan. Timothy's brain is going a million miles an hour, too fast to focus on their discussion, but from the atmosphere surrounding them it's probably not going well.

His gut wrenches when the spot Athena usually occupies is empty, a small part of him had been hoping she might be here despite everything. Seeing the spot growing cold only makes the gravity of the situation all the more real, and Timothy resists the urge to shiver. He hasn't actively tried to run off, but he must have wandered too far because at one point on of her lackeys threatened to shoot him. Where they afraid Athena's buddy might call for backup? Well, that certainly makes running off _not_ an option.

God, he hates this Vallory woman. He doesn't hate much, doesn't hate often, but Vallory's managed to press every single button the doppelganger has.

_Sounds like someone's on your shit list._

He can't even argue with that one.

It's with some hesitation that he fills in Athena's spot, and it just feels wrong to be standing there. He closes his eyes, eyebrows furrowing together. He tries to ignore the feeling of invading the space of someone no longer present. His head is still swimming, and everything that's happened, and still happening leaves him reeling. He needs time to sort out his thoughts, come up with a plan, figure out his best move. He wants to rescue Athena, but his wants and what's capable of doing in the moment are two very, very different things.

The mere idea of going to Helios makes his skin crawl. When he'd slipped onto one of the ships headed down to Elpises surface, he swore it'd be the last time he ever stepped foot in that place. And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he'd felt free. Sure, it hadn't been his first time being on that cracked moon, but it'd been the first time he'd done it as _Timothy_ and nobody else.

The very thought of going back onto the god forsaken space station fills him with dread and sharp pangs of anxiety. Jack may be dead, but Helios was his legacy, and Tim's experiences on that vessel had been numerous and horrid. There's trauma there that the years haven't yet managed to heal, and he's done a great amount of healing.

But on the other hand, he can't just abandon the girls. He can practically hear Athena in his mind berating him for merely considering it. She took her missions seriously, even the smallest ones. Even ones she despised. The likelihood he'll get an out to help Athena is growing slimmer with each passing second, and if he couldn't help Athena, he should at least finish the job for her. At least she could come back to her job done and get paid.  
  
Because he has to believe she'll be alright. He doesn't have any other choice.

He sighs, shakes his head, and forces his senses to the outside world.  
  
When Rhys comes in from the harsh snowy terrain outside, Timothy is the first to realize it. The girls are focused on what has devolved into hopeless arguing along the lines of 'This is impossible!' and 'We don't have a choice, Sash.' Timothy merely remains silent. He should put whatever happened back in the dome behind them, but the way Rhys spoke, the posture, the expressions and mannerisms, they won't leave his already busy brain.

He doesn't much time to let himself mull over it, because the middleman cuts into their conversation, and while it silences them both, it doesn't stop them from glaring daggers at him.

"Thank you," It's clear now that whatever happened earlier has passed Rhys sees more or less _normal_. The man's mannerisms and ways of speaking have taken a turn back to the familiar Rhys, and not the unnervingly accurate Jack-like behaviors.

"Alright guys it boils down to this, somehow we gotta get to Helios, infiltrate Hyperion, and Steal Goo _ortys_ 's Vault Beacon. Sorry, that was breakfast." Timothy makes a disgusted sound that apparently nobody else hears. He'd _better_ not barf in here. "Ahmm. Sorry. Without getting ourselves killed."

Everyone is staring at Rhys, the room going silent after he speaks. Why is Rhys so  _dumb_ sometimes? Timothy rolls his eyes in exasperation, and August (the blonde guy who's had his gun at Timothy earlier) takes a swig from a bottle. "No _shit,_ moron."

"I _just_ said that like thirty seconds ago." Sasha's patience is running thin, probably from stress.

"Everyone knows what we have to do, we're just trying to figure out how to do it." And Fiona sounds worn out from arguing with her sister.

"Okay, okay." Rhys sounds defeated, moving towards his spot and Timothy watches him drag his feet. Well, until the sisters start arguing again, and Timothy sighs. All of this shit is starting to give him a headache. Er, a...bigger headache. It's too damn much bickering, and while he's trying to tune it out, he's not doing a very good job of it. They're damn hard to ignore.  
  
This goes on for a few minutes until August cuts in.

"You got any ideas, asshole?" Timothy just ignores _that,_ too. Up until this point he's been pretty much ignored. Though, given the state of his pounding head, he can't say he's complaining. But everyone's gone quiet now.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you." Timothy slowly raises his head and sees the young blonde glaring at him trying to be intimidating, and Timothy sighs.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, we only really need these three, so maybe you should pitch in and give me a reason not to blow your brains out." Really, is that the best he's got? What an asshole.  
  
"Oh no," Timothy raises his arms into the air dramatically and both of the girls roll their eyes at him while August looks more and more annoyed with each passing second. "I'm just trembling in my boots over here. The pretty boy with the nose ring wants to shoot me! What ever will I do?"  
  
"Seriously?" Sasha deadpans, she's giving him a flat, clearly disapproving look. Timothy just offers her a shrug and a slight tilt of his head. She rolls her eyes a second time.  
  
"Hey, I'm serious you know. You're expendable." Fiona scoffs as August continues his attempt to...intimidate? Timothy's not sure if that's what it is, maybe this kid just always glares like that. It's really not all that scary, though.

"Oh, I know, but you're just _so bad_ at threats. It's hard to take you seriously."  
  
Before August can retaliate, Sasha growls softly, and then cuts into their bickering, voice sharp. "Would you two cut it out? This is _not_ helping." Timothy raises both hands in mock defense and August just glares at her, taking another swig of his beer.

Timothy knows August's threats aren't empty, but it's always been an ugly habit of his to cope with whatever bullshit is going on by being a complete and total smart ass. Making a joke of everything happening, helps make everything seem less hopeless and shitty. Timothy goes silent instead of pitching in, and he catches Fiona about to speak to him, so he raises a hand to quiet her before she can even begin.

"Just thinking, gimme a second." She doesn't seem to happy with him cutting her off before she even starts, but she doesn't say anything. Which is good, because Timothy really needs to think.  
  
Alright, so the beacon is up on Helios.

They needed transportation, a way to get around Helios without getting caught, and they...well, they needed to _find_ the beacon. The first one is way out of his scope, Timothy's connections on Pandora are painfully limited due to his... _situation._ The second one could be alleviated through disguises, a simply solution. Outside of security none of those desk workers would be a real threat. He hadn't been on Helios long after Jack made it Hyperion's main base of operations, but from what little he did see, he knew they'd probably never touched a gun in their lives.  
  
Finding the piece is the real bitch of the situation, and as he quietly mulls over his thoughts the sisters start to talk again. Rhys moves from where he's standing closer towards the group.

He was still a, active body double when Athena tore apart the corporation, she'd inadvertently aided Jack in crushing it to the point it was worth almost nothing, allowing him quite literally _buy_ the entirety of Atlas. Despite Jack literally owing Atlas, he can't think of any reason they'd keep any of their old tech just lying around. That wasn't how Hyperion _did_ things, how _Jack_ did things. He'd sooner toss that shit into an incinerator or into space and remake their plans in Hyperion's own image. Not keep it lying around to just admire it.

Unless.  
  
Unless that was literally _exactly what_ it was.  
  
His head snaps up, and the suddenness of him pushing himself off the wall startles the two sisters. It even makes Rhys pause mid-step.  
  
Tim sucks in a deep breath as he approaches the table, palms pressed against it's smooth surface.  
  
What conclusion he's come to now is risky to say out loud, but it's all he can contribute that's worthwhile. Even if August's threats aren't scary to him, they're real, and Tim knows that if he doesn't come up with something valuable he might as well be dead already. The little shit was probably already planning on killing him, what could some random guy who stuck around Athena possibly now about Helios?  
  
_Well, kiddo, more than you could possibly imagine._

But that in of itself is part of the problem, isn't it?

He knows a lot about Helios, about Hyperion, about Jack. Too much, more than anyone. And with Jack dead, Timothy alone held too many secrets that nobody else did. There was so much information about Jack, how he ran Hyperion, the things he did and planned to do. It made him indescribably valuable and dangerous all at once.  
  
"I know where the piece is." Expectant gazes turn to confused stares. He takes in a deep breath, then lets out a slow exhale and looks across the table to the two women waiting for him to continue. "It's in Handsome Jack's office."  
  
Confused stares quickly become shocked gawking on the faces of the two women sitting across from where he stands. He swears he hears Rhys make a choked sound of disbelief at his right, and silence fills the air, heavy and tense. Timothy swallows another breath in before straightening up. It's the only sound made for what feels like far too long. His mind is already racing to come up with a coverup story for this, a lie, an excuse, maybe a half truth. Anything will work, but he needs it to be convincing, and not 'I'm Jack's former body double', because that one simply _will not do._

"You're full'a shit." August finally mutters, and the breaking of the silence is perhaps even worse than the silence itself. Timothy tilts his head towards the man. Looking at August now, he's the only one that doesn't look taken aback, Tim realizes. "You pulled that outta nowhere."

He's not sure if August thinks hes genuinely bullshitting them all. Or if he's just as surprised and dealing with it in a way that isn't staring dumbly at the former body double. Either way, Timothy finds himself fine with the accusation. If he was August and he'd just heard it from someone in his position, he'd think it was too good to be true, too.

That being said, he can't find a good way to retort August's words; Not without raising too many suspicions, and if the girls or Rhys believe him, there's going to be plenty of those to go around. A part of him is hoping they feel the same way August does, because now that the words have fallen past his lips, he's deperately hoping the others will dismiss it. Let it go.

But Timothy has piss poor luck.  
  
"No," His voice is small, and Timothy tilts his head toward the sound. It's Rhys, who looks even more shocked than the girls, confusion clear across his face. His voice is filled with disbelief, it's soft. He's reluctant as he continues, Rhys's mismatched gaze finally pulling itself away from Timothy's face and towards August's, but he doesn't look any less taken aback. "He's, uh, he's right."  
  
Wait...wait, wait, _what?_

"The beacon's...it's in Jack's office." The man says the words slowly, uncertainly, like he's not sure he's hearing his own voice correctly, even.

August isn't glaring anymore, his eyebrows are furrowed together and he's looking between both Timothy and Rhys, as if trying to see if there's anything off about them, to see if there's proof they're lying, conspiring together, maybe. When he fails to respond in time, Rhys continues, forcing his voice to sound stronger than before, to not let it waver.

"Just...run it by Gortys, alright?"

Now the others aren't the only one confused. Rhys backing him up like that completely puts Timothy off. He's not looking at August like Rhys is, he's looking at Rhys instead. He knows nobody can see his face, but Rhys's gaze seems to flicker over to him, sensing Timothy looking over him like a hawk, and the middleman shuffles his feet in discomfort. There's a silence that sits heavily, a tension building before August finally succumbs to the request. "Fine." He lazily brings the radio to life in the Caravan with his free hand and crosses his arms over his chest, glancing at the two men from the corner of his eye. "Get the little robot on." He waits a few seconds before he eventually continues to speak. "Listen, you got a map of Helios?"

"That I do!" Chimes Gortys's chipper voice, and Timothy finally tears his gaze from Rhys towards the front of the caravan instead. He's got a million questions swimming in his head.

"See if you can scan for the beacon in Handsome Jack's old office." Timothy's mind is running a hundred miles an hour. He expected confusion, denial, maybe even accusations. He hadn't expected someone to back him up on it. For the first time he finds himself wondering who the hell Rhys _is_ on Helios. Timothy hadn't been on the satellite in almost five years, he doesn't know the people there, he never really did. But he'd known Meg, Jack's secretary and PA, he'd known Blake, he'd known Nakayama, and he'd known Nisha and Willhelm. But those were the only faces he'd gotten familiar with on that hellish little space station that he'd left behind. Most of them were dead, too. It wasn't too absurd to think Jack had gotten another PA, or changed any number of other workers that were in his circle after Timothy had gone.

_He's just a middleman, cupcake. You're thinkin' too much again._

It's rare when that voice brings him comfort, but right now he finds himself clinging to that thought. If Rhys is down here because of a botched deal, and Hyperion is after his head, he must've been just one of a million faces on that ship, not someone worth anything.

But that doesn't _help,_ and it sure shit doesn't answer his questions.

There's a soft chiming sound that pulls him from the multitude of racing thoughts, and Gortys speaks once again. "Beacon detected! We got a winner!"

He hadn't realized it until now, but the fear settling inside of him makes him realize he'd started hoping, somewhere along the line, that he'd be wrong.

"I'm sending Rhys the location data now!" Gortys is oblivious to the tension, she's not in the room, maybe she simply can't feel it. As August just stares at them, Timothy's whole body feels like a tightened spring. Rhys hesitates for a moment before he lifts his hand up and a projection springs to life from his palm, everyone is reluctant to turn their attention from their varied thoughts, Timothy can barely focus on the holographic map of Helios, a small blinking red dot hovering just above the deceased CEO's office (he knows it by heart, even after all these years).

"You gotta be shittin' me." Now everyone in the caravan is suitably taken aback.

"I wouldn't know how!" August's face screw into an annoyed expression for a brief moment before he kills the line, and composes himself from his previous shock.

"That whole sector must be crawling with guards." Sasha is trying to focus on their mission now, she sighs, glaring at the hologram floating above Rhys's palm. Timothy doesn't move from where he stands, he can't pull himself from his thoughts as easily as the others. Their lives depend on this mission, and while Timothy's does as well, being found out is just as much of a threat.  
  
In fact, he'd take August blowing his brains out over whatever Hyperion would have in store for him any day.

"Hey, give me one good reason why you think we could possibly break in?" Fiona sounds composed, soehow. She's squinting at Rhys, but he's ignoring her and is focusing on the hologram instead. Sifting through information until the map is replaced with what looks like a little sign. 'Handsome Jack VIP Experience', Jack's face is on it, Timothy can't resist the urge to shiver. He moves backwards slowly, occupying Athena's spot once again.

"You'd better have a damn good plan." And like that, Timothy sinks into the background, left to his thoughts and his worries.

Today has been a never ending shit show, going from bad to worse with ever passing second.

And this whole thing with Rhys has left him with so too many confused and scattered questions. At first Rhys seemed harmless enough, it wasn't until the dome that things got weird.Hell, iIt was fine until he came back and he was walking with that swagger and with those little mannerisms and inflections in his voice, right down to the little pet names. And now this, confirming Timothy's knowledge of Jack's office. If he's just a nobody from Hyperion, that doesn't make any sense. Some of the people up there were infatuated with Jack, no doubt, but that went way past infatuation and straight into the 'knowing too much for this to be normal' zone.

So caught up in his own thoughts, desperately trying to figure out what the hell this all is, that he fails to contribute anything to the plan the other three were devising. He was too deep in his own thoughts to even listen to them, in fact.

It isn't until August slams the door behind him as he leaves that he's able to come back from his hurricane of a brain. He's back in reality again, and the others have already come up with a plan, he realizes. He still doesn't move from Athena's spot. He's still acutely aware, even with all the other shit swirling in his mind, that something ugly is bound to come from him _knowing_ the piece was in Jack's office.

There's a tiny, naive part of him hopes they'll forget, or they'll just accept it and leave their accusations to themselves in silence. But he knows how it looks, he knows how suspicious it seems, and the girls aren't the kind to trust easily or blindly. The only person who'd likely keep it to himself would be Rhys, but one out of three won't do any good when the rest are still trying to pry information out of him.

"Wait a second," Sasha's voice is soft, like she'd just recalled something, and Timothy winces before she even continues. He knows what's coming next, and no matter what, he's not going to be able to brace himself properly. "So, how didyou guys know that the piece is in Jack's office?" Her gaze drifts from Rhys to Timothy, she looks suspicious, but not accusatory like he'd expected.  
  
_They don't have **any** context to your whole sob story, babe. What do they have to accuse you of? You're thinkin' a bit too much here._  
  
Neither of the men really know how to answer that at first, they're both silent, and the girls seem to shift their attention between the two of them, patience growing thin before Rhys _finally_ speaks. "Well, I just, uh, searched through my memory files. Took me a minute but, boom! Whaddya know? It was right there all along." It's a bad answer, it's a _bullshit_ answer, and the nervous laugh he lets out afterwards only makes that clearer.

Sasha shakes her head in disapproval that makes Rhys's smile falter, and it's Fiona whose gaze drifts over to Timothy, no doubt catching onto his silence, his hopes to melt into the background and just disappear from the conversation entirely instantly foiled. "So, what about you?"

He's not sure what to say. Rhys had pulled something so unexpected he'd completely forgotten to come up with something, _anything_ to say when this came up. He was completely empty handed with Fiona staring at him expectantly. No, scratch that, they're _all_ looking at him expectantly. "I mean Rhys _knows_ Helios, he's Hyperion, but..."  
  
Fiona's words drift into silence as realization makes it's way to her face and she furrows her eyebrows together, looking over his unseen face, scrutinizing him. "You know," He starts off oddly. "We've been together for like a week, so this is weird to ask, but...who even _are you,_ exactly?"

Oh, alright then. No accusations, sure. But he's still not sure how to answer _that_ question, either.  
  
_See, what'd I tell ya, cupcake? You worry too much.  
_

"I've told ya that. Don't tell me you forgot, you're breaking my heart over here." It's unsurprising to him that that's what spills out of his mouth. His knack for trying to diffuse a situation by being a smart ass shines through once again. The way that Fiona's nose wrinkles and how hey eyebrows furrow together would make him laugh in literally any other situation. It's not really an angry or even annoyed expression, she looks more like she's realized she should have seen that one coming a mile away.

"I really want to hit you right now, I just hope you know that." She eventually mutters out, crossing her arms over her chest with a sigh. Despite all of this, Timothy somehow manages to laugh, and that gets a smile out of Fiona herself. A small voice reminds him that she's a con artist, probably trying to disarm him, but that's the least of his concerns.

Sasha is quiet outside of the small scoff she lets out, she's halfheartedly glaring at him, but she can't mask the suspicion in her eyes like her sister does.  
  
But Rhys, who's normally talkative, is dead silent. He isn't trying to be lighthearted like the sisters, he's staring down Timothy with an expression Timothy can't totally comprehend. Though, to be fair, Timothy is also staring right back. Watching how the expressions on Rhys's young face seems to shift and falter. At some point he even looks like he's about to say something, but stops short.

Timothy doesn't miss how Rhys's eyes slowly drift from Timothy himself to next to the man and something about that _bothers_ the doppelganger.  
  
So his gaze follows, head tilting to his right. There's nothing there, but Rhys seems to realize that Timothy picked up on it, and his eyes widen just a fraction before they snap away from absolutely _nothing_ and flicker towards the sisters, then to Tim. It's weird, and Timothy seems to be the only person who _noticed_ it.

"Alright then, _smart guy._ " There's a hint of playfulness that masks Sasha's real intentions, maybe they realize he knows what they're doing, because she's not putting a whole lot of effort behind it.  
  
_Or maybe you've wizened up to how you can't trust anybody these days, eh? I'm proud of ya!_

"Are you at least gonna tell us how you knew it was in Jack's office?" She takes a step forward, snatching the reigns of the conversation from her sister. Fiona offers her younger sibling an offended glare, but Sasha ignores it in favor of staring down Timothy with a raised eyebrow, hands on her hips. "If we're gonna be a team we need to know that we can trust you."  
  
She's not beating around the bush like her sister, no doubt realizing such an attempt is fruitless against someone who up until this point has talked them in circles about _anything_ personal.  
  
Timothy doesn't blame them for prying. He's got a pretty good grasp of how this looks. He knows he seems suspicious, they know more about Athena than they do him, and Athena is a very closed off person. And Tim suddenly reavealing something like knowing where the Gortys piece is  probably looks more than sketchy. He wishes he could be honest, he really does. He wishes he didn't have to hide like he does, that he could just tell it to them straight; _I'm Jack's body double, his first one. I know all this shit because I **was** Jack. _

_Sometimes I still feel like I **am**. _  
  
But he wishes for a lot of things, and the reality of his life now will never allow for those dreams to come true.

He can't risk showing them his face, telling them his story. It's not out of sheer distrust, mind you (though it contributes), but it's also for the safety of others. If someone found out about it, about _him_ , anyone else who knew would be on the list of people to get their hands on, to rip whatever information they could. Everyone on Pandora knows how ruthless Hyperion is. Jack may no longer be there, but he's left a hell of a legacy.

The last thing he wants is to drag someone else into his own suffering.

"I can't." He can't continue to sit in silence and longer. His voice sounds soft, odd even to himself in the moment. Nobody in the room was expecting that response. H'e snot even sure he was expecting it. "You're just going to have to trust me. It's better you don't know."

He _swears_ that for a _moment_ he sees concern in Sasha's face, but if it was real, it was gone as quickly as it came. Fiona's own worry, though mixed with confusion, is far more evident. Rhys just looks confused, though, and he looks unsatisfied, try as he might to hide it. It's kind of funny in it's own fucked up way, leave it to a Hyperion worker to not give a shit. Yet Timothy can't even bring himself to feel bitter about it. Call it intuition, but there's something going on with Rhys, there's just a few pieces _missing_ that he needs to put the whole thing together to make sense of it.

"Hey," It's Fiona again, but her voice is soft, and it seems genuinely concerned. He's heard her talk to her sister and even to the two Hyperion like this before on occasion. But it feels strange to have it directed at himself. He's not sure how to feel about it, or the soft, worried look on her face. "Look, I know none of us are, well, _Athena_ , but if there's something you need to talk about..."  
  
Yeah, he's really not sure how to feel about this.

 _Wow, how long's it been since someone that wasn't Athena gave a rats ass about you, huh? Yikes, you are one **hell** of a mess, Timmy._  
  
The man shakes his head gently. "It's nothing like that." He pauses for a moment. "...you just gotta trust me."  
  
They don't seem satisfied with it, but they let it go, finally. Sasha turns her attention to Rhys a few moments later. "Hey, you too."  
  
Rhys blinks in confusion, shaking his own head and turning his attention to the girls. "Huh W-what?"  
  
"You were acting pretty weird back there, you know. If there's something wrong, you can tell us." Rhys's expression actually seems to falter. There's this uncertain glint that Timothy catches and he frowns. He's not the only one who's noticed after all, then. Even if it was just the odd behavior back in the dome, they're not... _ignoring_ it. That's good.

Rhys lets out a soft breath. "It's fine, alright? I just hit my head in the fall, and it's, uh...it's been a wild week. I'm fine. Really." The girls don't seem happy with that answer, but they don't have any choice but to accept it when August steps back into the caravan, two men following behind.

"Alright, Vallory's signed off on the plan. Rhys is goin' with Finch and Kroger," He gestures to the men following behind. "While the rest of us are going to Hollow Point to get this thing spacey." The two men, Finch and Kroger, he can only presume, urge Rhys towards the door within moments. He only gets a chance to spare them a glance that tries to reassure them. Then the door shuts loudly behind them and it leaves the other four of them alone.

August steps forwards after that, his mood seeming to pick up ever so slightly and he clasps his hands together. "Alright, let's get to work."

* * *

The drive to Hollow Point is long, dull, and quiet. But it gives Timothy an opportunity to think. Gives him time to think about Athena, about Rhys, about this whole damn situation. It gives him time to slow his thoughts, to let him focus on the situation at hand. It's a time to himself he desperately needed to get his brain line again.

There's a small voice in the back of his head is telling him right now is the perfect chance to jump ship, to go find Athena. It'd be all too easy. But leaving would be the only easy part about it. Going to Sanctuary, while not impossible, would be incredibly difficult, and being up there, floating god knows how many miles off the ground, surrounded by people who Jack tried to kill on a consistent basis? That's horrifying.

Specifically the part about being on a floating city.

You'd probably find it silly, after all the things he's gone through, how much he's grown, but heights still absolutely terrify him. He can only imagine how much Nisha, had she still been alive and not have shot him on sight, would have teased him about it.

If Athena is in Lilith's hands, he can only hope that the woman will ask questions before shooting. Athena was the best of them in Jack's tag team of Vault Hunters, Timothy knows all too well how much she'd grown to despise him, to regret working with him, realizing they contributed to the state Pandora had been put in. If it hadn't been for Springs, Timothy could only imagine Athena might just have offered her assistance in Jack's death.

They couldn't just _kill_ her. If they'd wanted to do that they would have done it earlier, right...?  
  
Right.

So, uh, yeah. Maybe convincing himself of this is still a work in progress.

And Athena aside, there's too much about the situation with Rhys left unchecked for him to feel comfortable leaving them. He needs to finish this job for the gladiator, of course, but Rhys keeps popping bacj into Timothy's head. Even the girls know something is off, the little nagging voice that sound so much like Jack reminds him of course that not everyone knew Jack like he did, not everyone will recognize the man's mannerisms. Especially not a couple of bandit chicks from Pandora.  
  
They're not bandits, though. Asshole.

 _Of course they are, Timmy! Hell, technically **you're**_ _a bandit! But I forgive you; It's hard to stay mad at a pretty little face like that._

Ugh. Anyways, Rhys.

Everything about what happened at the dome is still fresh in his memory. Everything about it had screamed _Jack_. At the time he'd thought Rhys was just being a little shit, but now that he's calmer he realizes something about that scenario was really, really, really _wrong._ Rhys had never behaved that way before. Sure, he acted kinda like Jack sometimes, Timothy had noticed it before, small things. Often in the way Rhys speaks or his posture, but until then Timothy had never seen Rhys so _spot on_. Rhys was himself before the dome, but when he'd walked into that room, there had been no Rhys in there. It'd just been Jack.  
  
It makes Timothy feel ill.

Then, there's Rhys being able to confirm Timothy's words earlier. Even the most obsessed people only knew so much about Handsome Jack. There was a lot about him that people didn't know, even Timothy, his damned body double, doesn't know everything about Jack. And he knows a hell of a lot more than anyone else. He'd only been able to really pull the pieces together based on his own knowledge of Jack as a person, how Hyperion handled Atlas tech, and how the hell it'd still be on Helios and not ash or shot out into the vastness of space. Rhys's claim that the knowledge had been in his brain all along doesn't make sense. Its a lie, and it's a bad one. Jack hadn't known about Gortys. If Jack _had_ , then Gortys wouldn't have been left in an abandoned facility gathering dust, he would have used her, gotten to that Vault, and used it for his various fucked up purposes.

There's just something wrong about all of this, but he can't expect Rhys to open up to him, not when he won't even open up to people he considers his _friends._

Then, when it comes down to this whole situation, the idea of going back to Helios? No matter how much he readied himself, he'd never be ready to go up there, he knows that, and the idea of stepping foot back on that god forsaken ship makes him wanna pull his hair out. Which is why he can't bring himself to address the issue with himself. How the hell is he going to manage this? Sometimes just seeing the thing in Pandora's sky is enough to make him feel like he's being watched and stalked, and like Jack's about to be behind his back and tear his damn throat out.

And Jack's been dead a while.

By the time they arrive at Scooter's and the Caravan comes to a stop. He's at least had time to rake through his thoughts and sort them out. Sort of. He's calmer now, at least. The girls don't pick up on the pang of discomfort he feels for the encounter with Scooter (nothing compared to the feelings he gets when he thinks about being on Helios again), for meeting face to face with Moxxi's son. He's not afraid of Scooter, it's just awkward, knowing Timothy crushed on Moxxi, who was his mother, who then tried to kill them. See? _Awkward._ _  
_

And the conversation about the girls apparently pretending to be racers for Scooter to fix up their caravan doesn't do any favors, either. Or talking about Scooter having buried someone alive. Though it does bring up a distant memory of Moxxi threatening to have her son bury them in a shallow grave. But in the present, the two girls are debating whether to just be honest or keep it up and Timothy sighs disapprovingly.  
  
"Listen, lying will just get you into deeper shit, just be honest 'bout it." Fiona turns to face him and soaks in his words, mulling them over before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, he seems like a nice enough guy. I'm sure he'll jump at the chance to build something cool." Sasha sounds more like she's trying to convince herself than Fiona, and it leaves the body double wondering if they'd ever come clean about this sorta thing before.

Nah, probably not.

It's with some reluctance that Fiona knocks at the door, and within seconds Scooter opens it, and greets the two women with a broad smile. It's weird to see the man in person. Timothy's seen posters and such for the whole Catch-a-ride spiel, but with the mechanic being in Sanctuary until recently, it's not like Timothy had any opportunities to meet the man in person up until this point (not that he'd had any real desire to do so). Someone with his face couldn't just waltz into that town without being shot a hundred ways to hell.

The girls then proceed to take his advice, admitting to not being racers, they play it up a little bit of course, but Scooter's reaction to it is practically nonexistent. Which makes what he says next unsurprising.

"Oh-no-I-am-so-surprised." The sarcasm isn't off putting for him, in fact it relieves the _hell_ out of him. "C'mon girl! I knew you wasn't racers! But you looked like a couple'a good-natured gals, and I never turn down an opportunity to help a couple ladies. Especially when I got a crush on one of 'em and I will not say who that is, no matter what. Fiona. Shoot!"

That last part pulls both a smile and a small laugh from him as Fiona and Sasha just stare in mild discomfort, and it seems to be the first time Scooter notices him (Tumothy has a way with melting into the background). The mechanic gives him a once over before turning his attention to the con-artists. "This fella another one'a yer friends?" He adjusts the brim of his hat and stares Timothy over more carefully this time.

Sasha sighs, shakes her head. "Sort of, but I'd say he's more of a..."

He shrugs. "Hired hand."  
  
Sasha nods in agreement. "Yeah, that."  
  
Scooter seems satisfied with that answer, offering the girls a smile and inviting them in. _  
_

Timothy lets himself lag behind, gaze drifting around the garage. The walls are littered with racing posters and advertisements for Dahl products, his eye catches on a pin-up calendar and he rolls his unseen eyes. Leave it to a mechanic to be weirdly stereotypical about women and be into pinups. It's no wonder though that Scooter's into all this stuff, Moxxi had been a mechanic herself, knew a shit ton of things about machines that Timothy couldn't begin to fathom. He supposes she passed it onto Scooter and Ellie, even if she kept it in the dark, unlike her two kids.

 _Thunk, thunk, thunk._  
  
"-couple'a Vault Hunters nabbed her girlfriend out in the tundra."  
  
He might have only caught the tail end of that conversation, but it doesn't stop his blood from running cold. His head snaps up towards the other three, and they're staring at a new presence in the room. An all too familiar presence. Timothy swears a soft _shit_ under his breath.

There stands Janey Springs ( _junk dealer_ ). She's slamming her hammer against a vehicle, a bike of some sort, harder than is strictly necessary, her expression cold, angry, _hurt_. She's upset, and it's warping the atmosphere around them to match her mood. Realization seems to be dawning upon the new guests in the garage over what Scooter's words entail.

He'd completely forgotten about Janey, about Athena not having _told her_. Oh, god _dammit._ How could he be so stupid? How the hell could he forget _Janey_ ina ll of this?

Scooter asks them to clear the air for the poor woman, no doubt dealing with the realization that not only had her girlfriend lied, she'd been _captured_.  
  
Even though it's asked of them, the girls are reluctant to approach the agitated woman. It's even harder for Timothy to bring himself to follow along, to keep his mouth shut as guilt constricts around him, sucking the willpower straight from his core. There are a million things he can think to say, that he wants to say. He'd had a lot of time to think until they arrived here, but none of it gave him a chance to prepare to face _Springs_.  
  
"That's a...nice bike. You make that yourself?" Fiona's voice is soft, trying to be friendly, but it ultimately comes off as awkward despite her best efforts. Springs doesn't pause in her aggressive hammering to respond, she doesn't even look up from what she's doing.  
  
"I did. Was gonna be a present for Athena when she got back." Timothy's throat constricts and breath catches in his throat. Sasha seems to have heard it, because she tilts her head towards him, a brief flash of confusion in her features, as if asking him what's wrong.  
  
"Oh." Is all that Fiona manages to say.  
  
"Yeah. 'Oh'." He wants to say _something,_ he knows he should say something. But the guilt bearing down on him is too much. Why the hell hadn't he pushed the issue further with Athena? _Dammit._

He hadn't spoken to Janey since he called in a panic ready to leave Helios for good, and he hasn't seen her in even longer. By then she'd already left Elpis with Athena and they were making themselves comfortable on Pandora. So much had changed since then, and if Athena hadn't told her about what she was doing, he doubts Athena told her about the doppelganger. And that just makes this even worse, she doesn't know who the hell he is.

Within moment Janey is pacing around the room, venting her frustrations, the dam breaking in the presence of the two sisters. Talking about how Athena lied to her, how she forgot to turn off her echo the last time they spoke, how she'd heard Fiona. Then how her ECHO went dead after the fighting started, and the anger and the hurt mixes with worry. He should say _something_ , this isn't he fault of the two sisters, but he finds himself unable to speak, still.

When she responds, Fiona is honest about what Athena was doing. Tells her about how Athena had been hired by an old friend of their to train them to become Vault Hunters, to teach them to survive, and that she merely got caught up in their mess. He doubts it makes the sting hurt any less, the fact she'd been lied to. But she has her questions answered, so maybe, just maybe, it would put her mind at ease.  
  
Then, they start talking about what happened to the gladiator. Timothy hadn't been there, hadn't witnessed the woman get nabbed, all he'd heard was the scattered voices of her ECHO and a few explosions. Listening to what Fiona says doesn't make him feel any better.

No, it makes him feel worse.  
  
Athena had _saved_ her, taken the blow so that Fiona wouldn't have to. Vallory had to throw her whole gang and two other Vault Hunters at the gladiator to take her down. But all Timothy can think is  _If I'd been there, they wouldn't have taken her down._ But he hadn't, he'd let Athena down. No, not just Athena, but Janey as well, the girls, everyone. He could have prevented all of this.

But he'd failed them, and now Athena was paying for it.  
  
Her and Janey both.

"--I just wanna know one last thing and then I'll see about the rocket." Timothy lets out a slow breath, he's trying to keep himself calm, but the guilt is eating him alive. "Did she...say anything about me? Before they took her? The way she acted, sometimes I wasn't even sure if she liked me. Like maybe I was just a fluke, or...something."  
  
He hates hearing Janey say those words. Athena is difficult, a mess, and her methods of affection are shaky at best. But in all the time he's known her, Timothy has never seen Athena grow so soft as she had for Janey Springs, speak so warmly and fondly. She might be an emotionally constipated mess, but Athena is a mess who _loves_ her girlfriend.

"She told me to pass on a message." That stops Springs and her ramblings of uncertainty, and pulls Timothy from his guilt ridden thoughts. "She said she loves you." Janey is instantly taken aback. She stares at Fiona, awestruck before heat spreads to her face, a smile filling in where a scowl had been moments before. It was just the right thing to say, it doesn't alleviate the guilt, but seeing Janey seemingly brighten up helps.

"She did? I- oh, goodness. Okay. Oh, _wow._ " She sounds stunned, taken aback. Timothy sucks in a small breath, he needs to say _something._

So...he does.

"I'm sorry, Springs."

His presence had been completely forgotten, and when he speaks it reminds the two sisters that he was still lingering behind them. They turn to look at him, they look confused. Was it because he called her by Springs instead of Janey? Or that he'd spoken up at all? He supposes it doesn't matter, what really matters here is that Janey has realized his presence.  
  
She also looks confused, but in a different way, she's scrutinizing him, looking him over head to toe. The doppelganger takes a small step forwards past the girls. "I should have pushed her to tell you the truth." The scarred woman's confusion is fading from her face, thought her gaze continues to linger over his form before it finally, _finally_ meets his face.

" _Tim?_ Is that you?" She doesn't move from where she stands, but she holds a look of recognition and surprise.

That, uh. That was...quick.

He only really manages to utter an undignified ' _uh_ ' at her as the mechanic approaches him, swiftly passing her bike and pushing herself into his personal space. "That's you, isn't it? Timothy Lawrence?" He takes a small step back and she takes two forwards, her face close to his own and he puts his hands up in a motion of defeat.

He pays no mind to the girls openly staring at the scene unfolding before them.

"W-wow. I, uh, wasn't...expecting you to- to recognize me that... _fast._ Okay, then. Uhm." He's stumbling over his words, truly taken aback. That's all the confirmation Janey needs. Her gaze drifts over his form for a moment before back to his face. "You've still got some'a the stuff you had back on Elpis on ya. You didn't think I'd forget you that easily, did ya?"  
  
"... _oh._ " How did she remember all of that, though? Good _god_.

"Hold up," Sasha steps up to them, having found her voice from the initial shock. Fiona is still silent, surprise clear as day on her face. "Do you two _know_ each other?"

Timothy glances at Sasha, then at Janey, then back at Sasha again and only manages to offer a small shrug. Janey, however, has no qualms with actually speaking. She straightens up, takes a step back, and gives Timothy some much needed space.

"This fella here? A'course! Haven't seen the bugger in _ages,_ though. " Her gaze turns back to the doppelganger, an eyebrow raised. "Last I 'eard of you was from Pickle, and that was years ago." Timothy shifts guiltily under her gaze, and he can tell the girls find the shift in personality _weird_ , but damn if Janey hadn't bring out some really embarrassing habits in him.  
  
"Springs," He starts out. He could let her forget about the Athena thing, but he knows it needs to be said, he needs to apologize. "About Athena. I-"  
  
"Was with her?" She doesn't sound accusatory, but she doesn't sound pleased, either. She's staring over his face again, unseen as it is, but he feels like she can still see it.  Maybe it's because she remembers his face before he'd hidden it like this, imagining how he must look right now. "I figured."

Timothy's gaze falls from her figure, off to the side. He sighs and shakes his head gently. "I'm sorry."

He hears her sigh, hears her footsteps as she moved towards him, but he doesn't move from where he's standing. "Hey, look at me, will ya?" He pauses, hesitating to do so, but he eventually does so, meeting her gaze. He expects her to be angry at him like he's angry at himself, hell he wouldn't blame her for hitting him.  
  
"Springs, look. I know Athena lied to you, and I know I could- _should_ have done something about it, but we _really_ need this rocket. If- if you're mad at me, don't take it out on these two, alright?" He barely manages to catch the look of surprise from the sisters, how they're looking at him with eyebrows raised. "If they don't get this, they're fucked."

Janey is still staring him down, expression hard to read. It's like that for a few long seconds before she finally lets out an exasperated sigh and shakes her head. She looks almost annoyed when she stops, eyes meeting his. "Really?"  
  
She does not sound impressed with him _._ He braces himself.  
  
"I'm not about to say no just because Athena dragged you into all this. She's stubborn and I would know, I'm dating her." She smirks at him. "And you've never really been the most persuasive of figures. Nothin' personal a'course."

Timothy stares at her, trying to comprehend what she's saying. He'd been expecting her to be angry, or...or _something._ She takes his silence as her cue to keep speaking.

" _You_ just gotta promise me one thing, alright?" He nods slowly, dumbly, still in shock. "Finish this job for 'er, after all this is done I'm gonna go in guns blazing and rescue my soon to be wife. Can't do that though if she's gonna run off to finish what she started, so you're gonna finish it for her, got it?" Timothy stares, and he lets out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in until now.  
  
"That was already part of the plan." He suddenly finds himself flooded with relief, the only relief he'd felt since the whole debacle with Rhys at the dome. Springs grins at him and claps her hands, rubbing them together. She seems more than satisfied with that answer.  
  
"Well then! You've got yourselves a rocket."

* * *

" _Lawrence_?" Sasha is hovering over him from where he's reclining against a few boxes. It's the first time anyone has spoken since Janey agreed to the whole thing and took the Caravan to god only know where. She seems amused, and Timothy can't resist the small smirk forming across his own features. He hums softly at her.

"Yup." He drags the word along, popping the p sound at the very end, Sasha lets out a laugh of disbelief and looks back at her sister. Timothy's gaze follows to Fiona's figure, leaning against the wall, an eyebrow raised an an entertained look of her own.

He's feeling better now. Much better. He knows it's merely a brief reprieve, a short period of relief from all that's happened. They were still faced with a seemingly impossible task, but Janey's declaration of going to save Athena, of marrying her, it makes him feel so much better. He has his worries still, but he can push them to the side when he imagines Janey's determined face.

Athena will be alright.

"That is just... _wow._ " Sasha lets out another laugh and throws her hands up in the air. "Can you _believe_ this, Fi? Athena's buddy here is named _Timothy._ "  
  
"Alright, c'mon, it's not _that_ bad," His halfhearted defense comes with a snicker. He's enjoying this change of pace, the teasing, the escape from the weight of everything else. He desperately needed this.

"Yeah, no. It's pretty lame." Fiona finally says from across the room and Timothy offers her a dismissive wave.

"What do _you_ know, huh?"

"I know that Timothy Lawrence sounds like the name of a huge _nerd._ "

 _She's not wrong, kiddo. You're definitely a dork. You write about **bears** for Christ's sake. Er, wrote. You- you get the point._  
  
"Alright," August's voice cuts through the little lighthearted conversation they had going between them. The man stands himself up, clutching a particularly thick wad of cash that Timothy lets a low impressed whistle at. August gives him a glare and makes his way over to the quick-change station across the room.

Sasha groans in disgust in realization. " _Ugh,_ are Hyperion costumes necessary?"  
  
"Not a fan of the corporate suit look, I take it." Timothy teases at her, and she gives him a halfhearted glare back.

"Fiona will fit in on Helios, but you two? Nah, you're gonna need something else." Timothy pushes himself into a proper sitting position and rests his head in his hand.

"I already got something in mind, don't you worry 'bout me." He offers the others a dismissive wave, soon August approaches them and hands Fiona the money. He looks annoyed, well, more annoyed than usual. But to be honest, annoyed seems to be his default most of the time.

"And _don't_ waste it, I coulda bought a lotta guns with that money." Oh for fuck's sake, really? Timothy rolls his eyes behind his goggles.

He idly watches as Fiona picks out clothes with Sasha, even choosing a Hyperion-looking business suit herself. Timothy gives her a thumbs up  that she catches and her smile broadens just a touch at. Fiona sure does have a taste for good fashion, he'll give her that. When she steps away Sasha takes her place and picks out what Fiona had chosen for her, a dress suit of her own with purple trimming and it actually looks pretty nice, though he's sure she's not too fond of it.  
  
Too Hyperion.

By then Rhys has since returned and stepped into the garage. That alone isn't too surprising or interesting. What is, however, is the flayed face he's clutching in his robotic hand. As he approaches Sasha from behind Timothy actually has to do a double take to make sure he's not seeing things. After which he's _still not satisfied,_ so he pushes himself up and moves towards the middleman in disgusted fascination.

Sure enough it's a goddamn _face_.

_Oh-ho-ho **man** , is that gnarly! Is he gonna freak her out with it? Oh please do that, kid. She'll definitely hit you; But it'll be soooooo worth it.  
_

"Holy shit, Rhys." Rhys and Sasha had just began talking when Timothy cuts in. "That is just. The _grossest_ thing, and I have see a _lot_ of gross shit." Sasha raises an eyebrow before her gaze follows Tim's to the dismembered skin Rhys is just casually holding. Her smile drops instantly, and disgust easily takes it's place.

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna ask." Rhys gives her a look that says 'yeah, that's probably for the best' and Timothy kneels down to get a better look at it, much to Rhys's chagrin.

"Could- could you _not_ do that?" Timothy lets out a sharp laugh.

"Is this what you went to Old Haven to pick up?" Rhys's nose wrinkles at the question and he groans.  
  
"No- well, sort of. We went to go get Vasquez's body."

"Uh, kid, this is a _face._ "

"Yeah, well it's... _Hugo's_ face." As Rhys lifts the skin up in his hand, his face turns a slight shade of green and Timothy laughs _again._

"Ohh man, did you run into one of those Psycho skin pizza party things?" The pause and the look on Rhys's face says it all. "Oh my god, you _did_ didn't you? Holy _shit._ " Seeing Rhys gag every time he's reminded he's currently holding a man's severed face is really pretty entertaining. Yeah, it's fucking disgusting, and Timothy from five years ago would probably have emptied his stomach and passed out by now, but he's been on Pandora long enough to get used to all this bizazare and disgusting shit.

So, all things considered, Rhys is handling holding a dead man's face in his hand pretty damn well. Tim remains crouched as Rhys holds up the face to the scanner, and he nearly hurls. Timothy merely lets out a low, impressed whistle that Rhys's eyebrow twitches at. When all is said and done Rhys is all too eager to toss the dead man's actual, literal _face_ to the ground and Timothy finally straightens up.

His attention is no longer on Rhys, who i getting his disguise ready, Timothy is kicking at the dismembered face with his boot. When someone (Fiona) takes notice, they let out a disgusted sound. He hears her utter something as well, but he can't make it out. 

When Rhys speaks next, it's not Rhys's voice, it's what he can only assume to be Vasquez's. He finally pulls his attention from the macabre heap on the floor and up towards the rest of the group.  
  
"That is... _impressive_." Sasha mutters, a small smile of approval forming across her face. It's sure as hell convincing looking, Tim had to give him that.  
  
"You got all that from _this?_ " He nudged at the skin one last time. Sasha rolls her eyes as he snickers to himself. "Ahh, gotta love technology these days."  
  
"Watching you do that is the absolute _worst,_ I hope you know that." Fiona adds dryly and Timothy grins to himself. Rhys, looking like Vasquez, tries to tear his gaze from the little gore pile Timothy has been mucking with and groans to himself.

To everyone's relief, Timothy finally leaves the face alone, thoroughly examining the nasty little scene, and approaches the quick-change station himself. He has a good list of things going on in there, a lot of very old, unused outfits he hadn't seen in many years. Then there's the skins, and there are much fewer of those. Mostly, you know, disguises and stuff. But the one he picks is the very last in a long list of things.

A strange light envelopes his form and he lets out a soft sigh when he feels a shift of weight across his body, heavier layers with yellow plating replacing his usual garb. He looks over himself and hums, his voice coming out of the helmet with a singular, rather intimidating, view piece.  It's full of static and somewhat fuzzy, but it's the same voice the others have all grown familiar with. The chatter among the rest of the group comes to a haunt as Timothy, clad in Hyperion Security garb, approaches. Rhys looks him over and lets out a soft 'wow', this time in his own voice.

"Well that sure is...something, alright." Sasha says uncertainly, tilting her head to the side, and Timothy closes the rest of the distance between them swiftly and easily.   
  
"Yeah." Rhys agrees quietly, eyebrows furrowed together, looking confused, and Timothy swears he looks slightly disappointed as well. What, did he think he'd see ol' Timmy's face? "How'd you get your hands on that?"  
  
Timothy shrugs, holstering his pistol in sake of wielding a Hyperion SMG. "Does it matter? It might just come in handy."

"How do you figure?" Augusts asks, tone impatient.

"Well, smart guy," He crosses his arms over his chest. "Let's say one of these guys get into a tight situation with the security up there." He moves, gesturing to the other three, all in their own various costumes and disguises. "Imagine how much easier it'll be to handle the situation than to have someone pose _as_ security. You know, _peacefully_."

"That's...actually a _really_ good idea." Fiona sounds thoroughly impressed, August doesn't say anything, but he doesn't look impressed at all.  
  
"Well then, I'm glad someone appreciates it, at least." August grunts at the two of them and pushes himself back up.

"Whatever. That Scooter guy said everything's ready. Let's get goin'." As he makes his way towards the door, Fiona rolls her eyes at him and glances at Timothy with a small smile and a thumbs up that makes Timothy smile just a little bit.The whole group forms together, Gortys and Scooter joining with the others, and as they step outside the other two (Flinch and Cougar? Bah, hell if he remembers) follow suit.

The rocket is immediately visible from where they stand and everyone stops to just _stare_ at it.

Now, when Timothy imagines a Rocket, or generally any space transportation, he imagines something, oh, I dunno, _different?_ Basically, not whatever Springs had managed to cook up in the short time she'd been allowed. It's...bigger than he expected, that was for damn sure. It towers amidst even the tallest building within Hollow Point by three times at _least_. Two long thrusters at the sides that would be used for the initial lift off, attached to two more moderate looking thrusters on each side of the caravan, which was at the top in the very center.

Oh, and this is all very, very, _very_ tall. There's a ladder that leads up to the caravan itself, and Timothy feels his stomach dropping at the mere sight of it. 

Oh...oh _boy._

"I am already _so_ regretting this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the fact that this somehow ended up being over 10,000 words at some point while I was writing it is both incredible and terrifying. i hope it makes up for how long it took to put this one out. 
> 
> i do apologize if it's not consistent with stuff prior to chapter 4. with the whole not being able to write while the internet was out i fell out of the groove and may have forgotten some things and if that's the case i am so sorry. otherwise enjoy this! it was fun to write timothy showing a rand of emotions like this and the introspection aspect. 
> 
> writing this has been a really fun experience just in general.
> 
> as usual u can find me on [tumblr](https://taiketsuenmi.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm growing more and more casual and lazy with these author's notes. i don't really have much to say abut this chapter! except that the story is slowly going to be pretty different after this. we're at least half way done, though. i think. 
> 
> ah! by the by i made a reference for timothy! it's super messy but [here u go](https://taiketsuenmi.tumblr.com/post/161635026578/im-super-shy-in-posting-this-its-been-500-years)!! it also has some headcanons and stuff abt tim that i don't know if i'll ever address here in this fic specifically.

They lost Scooter.

Not even on Helios and people were already _dying._

Drawing closer and closer to the space station with one empty seat, and he can only hope there won't be more on the way back to Pandora. The caravan is heavy in it's silence, even Vallory's thugs are quiet and somber when Fiona releases the small satellite into space. They're all silent, Helios growing closer and closer with every passing second.

He wishes he could feel more saddened, to feel the urge to mourn. To think about how he'd just watched Moxxi's son die. But with Helios looming over them ominously, and they grow closer and closer, he finds himself unable to focus on anything but the imposing structure. It's taxing and it absorbs all his thoughts. Every second feels agonizingly slow, approaching the Hyperion base is absolutely torment.

Other ships flit by in the opposite direction as they go in for their landing, and he wishes desperately he could be one one of those and not on this hunk of metal. He scrunches his eyes together tightly, takes in a sharp breath. His fingers are digging into his restraints, but nobody has taken notice. No amount of readying himself would have made this any easier. They just need to get in and out as soon as possible and escape this nightmare in the sky. He keeps his eyes closed for a very long time, he can feel them land with a soft thunk. He hears someone leave, but he's keeping his eyes tightly closed, tuning out the talking everyone around him is doing, doing his damnedest to calm himself.

August eventually nudges him in the arm. He doesn't open his eyes, he doesn't move, and frankly, he barely breathes. The second time it's a jab in his arm, and the doppelganger finally cracks open an eye towards the annoyed looking Pandoran, his head tilting ever so slowly to the side.

"Get goin'." Timothy's body is tense like a tightened spring or a rubber band, ready to snap. He moves slowly, trying to slow himself, keep himself from having a panic attack in front of this August kid and his two pals. He keeps his eyes away from the windows, his feet feel like lead as he unwillingly drags himself to the door.

Getting out of the caravan feels like a feat all it's own, the door feels a hundred times heavier than before, and when he finally pushes it open, and steps out to the hangar, he's greeted by Helios. His heart is thrumming fast, he takes one step after another, almost mechanically, until he's out of the caravan completely. Being here again makes his whole body feel heavy, makes him feel like everything is closing in on him. He doesn't even recognize this hangar, but the atmosphere is the same.

Someone crashes into him from behind and he freezes, turning himself towards the offender slowly. But it's merely Fiona, and Timothy manages out a stuff, short apology despite how suffocating this place is.

He expects Rhys to come out after them, but nobody comes, and the guy, August, shuts the door as Gortys climbs down from the roof.

"Are you alright?" Sasha raises a brow at him, mild concern on her features, arms crossed over her chest.

_Oh, I dunno. I mean I'm only just back in the place that ruined my life.I'm just swell, thanks! Jesus Shit, no I'm not 'alright'! I'd rather have that August guy blow my brains out than do this.  
_

"Lookin' for Rhys." Sasha goes quiet for a moment, then glances at Fiona, before back at Timothy.

"He went ahead already. Remember the plan?" Timothy's silence is a good enough answer, and she sighs in frustration, squeezing the bridge of her nose. "Were you even listening?"

He feels numb to her frustration, his voice comes out stiff and insincere. "Got distracted. Sorry." The sisters exchange glances again before Fiona gently shakes her head and brushes past him.

"Just follow us, alright? We're waiting for Rhys to tell us where to go next." Timothy lets out a soft 'ah', and that's it before he's trailing along behind them.

In retrospect, at least the hangar had been somewhat open, stepping into the narrow halls of Helios makes him feel all the more trapped. This place made him feel so claustrophobic and trapped. It feels like the walls will close in on them and crush them at any moment. He shakes his head gently, takes in a few deep breaths. Panicking is the last thing he should do. Focus, he needs to focus.

Rhys picks up on all of their ECHOs and starts leading them along the way. Which was good, because Timothy's mind is too busy for him to try to remember the layout of this place right now (not that they knew he knew Helios).

"The door is straight ahead." Fiona offers a small salute to one of the cameras (was he watching them from the cameras? Hacked them? That makes sense) in the hall and Timothy spares it a small glance before follow the girls along. The long hall leads, finally, to a staircase going down but continues straight. Timothy's gaze is focused on the ground, not his paranoia inducing surroundings, his gaze only going so far as to follow the other's heels and their loud, pronounced clacking with every step against the pristine metal flooring. His own footsteps are much more clunky and dull, soft thunking.

"Alright, so, we're at the Hub of...Heroism?"  
  
Timothy is reluctant, but he pulls his head up, peeling his eyes from the floor. He's clenching and un-clenching his fists over and over again.  
  
There were plenty of voices around them, a group of four or five Hyperion workers socializing and even more randomly passing through or eating at tables in the center of the room. He recognizes this space. He clenches his jaw, his breath catches in his throat when his gaze falls to the doors across from them. It's a mistake, because once his gaze lands on it, it feels almost impossible to take his eyes off of it.

Jack's office is _right there._

He'd been through this place too many times to count, simply to get to _that_ office. He'd had a lot of breakdowns in that elevator, both coming and going. Damn near five years later and he's about to do it all over again. Mental breakdown included.

There's a tight squeeze to his hand that startles him, jerks him from his thoughts, and he seems little robotic appendages doing their best to wrap around his large hand. At his side stands Gortys, whose expression is worried, eyes down-turned crescents, and mouth a little frown. She's staring at him expectantly but he can't bring himself to really speak, so he gives her little robotic 'hand' a squeeze back.

The girls are talking with Rhys, but he's long since tuned them out. _You should really pay more attention, kiddo._ He lags behind them when they start to move forwards, only realizing because Gortys tugs him along as well. He supposes that ugly little voice in his head is right, as mucha s he hates to admit it, and he begrudgingly focuses on the girls speaking.

"Pretending to be a tour guide for a place we've never been and know nothing about. This'll end well." He wonders how the hell the two girls can feel so at ease right now. He gently pries his hand from Gortys's (surprisingly) tight grip and pats the top of her head before she can protest.

"I'm fine, Gortys. Just distracted."

She doesn't seem convinced, voice worried and saddened all at once. "Okay..."

He follows along more attentively after that, doing his best to tune out his surrounding and focus on the girls, on their job, and how to get it over with as soon as physically possible. The two sisters are trying to spec out their tour guide as something catches Timothy's eye. There's a sign with a miniature Jack directing towards the 'Jack VIP Experience' in the former CEO's office. He can't suppress the small shiver that runs through him, denies himself the right to think into it too much. He doesn't want to think about how the people damn near _worship_ Handsome Jack, dead or not.

He pulls his gaze from it and it lands on a familiar man leaning against a railing. Oh, and there's Croaker. Or was it Phil? Whatever. Well _one_ of the two is standing there, and Timothy winces at how much the man stands out, and he's more concerned about that than the fact they're watching over the team.

"Oh! There's the tour guide." Comes out Sasha's hushed voice, pulling Timothy's attention back towards them. She briefly gestures towards a woman who is taking a seat at one of the tables; She's wearing a yellow blouse and a tight black skirt, clutching a cup of coffee tightly in her hands. The two sisters instantly start to discuss their plan, Timothy declared their 'back up' if things get messy. He nods and holds his ground where he stands as the two move into position.

He remains just within hearing range, keeping an eye on it. Thankfully it goes well enough, though not as smoothly as planned. Quick thinking and improv saves the day, and with these two that seems to be a reoccurring theme. The tour guide, now covered in coffee, is taken off by Sasha while Fiona glances over the key card with a smug smirk, and winks towards him.

He takes that as his cue and makes his way over to her as she's attaching the key card to the front of her clothes, when she sees him close in on her position she offers him a smirk and brushes past him, gesturing for him to follow her towards the elevator. The elevator to Jack's office. Unwelcome memories and feelings come back in droves as he watches her scan the card and as the elevator doors open softly.  
  
It takes every ounce of willpower he has not to back away from it like it's some dangerous animal, ready to lunge at him. It takes even _more_ to bring himself to step into it, and to resist the urge to chicken out within moments. And boy is he tempted to do just that. The doors _finally_ close and now there's no going back.

He needs to calm down. Jack is dead, and this is just a creepy as memorial. Jack isn't going to be there when you ride up, his corpse is rotting away in some stupid ass Vault that's God only knows where.

The elevator takes a moment before it jerks to life, but the ride up is smooth. Timothy is taking deep, slow, deliberate breaths.

This will be quick. In and out, find the beacon and then they'll get the hell out of dodge. They're almost done, the hardest part is almost over. You can do this, you can-

"Ahh, dammit. They know they've been hacked!" H-huh? "I got this, but you need to hurry, and keep a low profile."

Rhys, you truly have _impeccable_ timing. Timothy's heart rate starts to rise once again.

The lights flicker, a soft 'ding' signifying they've reached Jack's office.

**"ATTENTION. Helios is on high alert, please report any suspicious activity immediately."**

The voice that speaks over the intercom isn't the one he remembers, but it's still got the same falsely sweet and upbeat voice that doesn't match the words being said. Oh, shit. Fuck. God _dammit._

The door hasn't opened yet, Fiona nudges him.

"Hey. Eyes on the prize, alright? Keep it cool, we got this." She doesn't sound too certain herself, but she appears to be keeping her composure. Which was more than could be said of Timothy. He takes in a slow breath. "You seem... _really_ strung up. But hey, we'll be out of here before you know it. Just try and stay focused and watch my back, alright?"

He manages a nod, just as the doors slide open.

There's a group of men with their backs turned to them, and at first Timothy doesn't think much of it. It must be the tour group. They take not even two steps and things take a turn for even worse for the poor traumatized double. The man all turn to face them. The tag team of three all grind to a halt, staring at the scene abruptly laid before them. A small, raspy choking sound still escapes from Tim's throat as he resists the urge to scream.

They're wearing these...masks. Masks of Jack's _own_ mask. He feels like he's about to have a heart attack. He's in hell. He's been dead this whole damn time, and he's in _Hell._ That's the only logical explanation for this.

Why the hell hadn't he gone with Sasha? Oh god, oh god, oh god, what _is this?_ ** _Stop it._**

Timothy can't stave off the trembling that's now racking his whole body. He takes a single pitiful back towards the elevator, but it's long since closed behind them. They have nowhere to go but forwards. The silence that sits between the groups is staggering, until Gortys _finally_ speaks, whispering to the con-artist.

"Fiona? I don't like their faces, they aren't moving."

No. No, no, no, no, no. He'd been bracing himself to be back in Jack's office, not to be met with some _freaks_ wearing Handsome Jack masks like some _crazy cultist bastards._

Whether or not Fiona notices how Timothy's state of panic, she reluctantly moves towards the group. He hears her words but his brain doesn't process their meaning. Yeah, he's definitely in hell, in hell or in a nightmare realm damn near close to it. He's completely frozen in place, he can't stop watching these people wearing these masks.

Just another thing to add to the list of trauma Jack has caused.

They're well ahead of him when he can finally bring himself to move. One foot after the other, it's agonizing, and takes too much strength to push himself further into the bowels. But their backs are facing him, and he can't see those horrible, horrible masks on their faces. How many of those guys would have eagerly taken up the chance to _be_ Jack? It feels like he's witnessing a cult horror film, only it's inadvertently about _him._

 _  
_ Hard not to be when you actually have the man's face that they all idealize so.

He doesn't realize how his hands have moved from his sides to his hidden face until they're met with the helmet and he pauses, slowly lowering them and staring at his palms. His fingers are trembling. A sick, terrified bout of laughter slowly begins to bubble up from the depths of his chest and he has to bite his tongue to keep himself from bursting out into goddamn hysterics.

He'd been about to try and claw his face off. His hands only tremble harder at that realization. There had only been a few instances in which he'd ever dared to do such a thing. Mostly in the middle of breaking down. Whether it be over how he fucked over his entire life or yet _another_ identity crisis.The last time he'd dug at his face was...well, he couldn't really recall those details in this state. It was a long time ago, though.

God, he needs to get the _hell_ out of here. Get out before he loses his fucking mind.

Whatever is happening outside of his head may as well not exist to him, Fiona and Gortys have long since left him behind to maintain their cover and he's barely moved ten feet. He needs to keep it together, a small voice reminds him. You've got a job to do, and breaking down here of all places is the worst thing he could possibly do right now.

And it's right.

He focuses on his breathing, stares at his feet, counts to ten.

_There ya go, kiddo. Once this is all said and done you can have as many mental breakdowns as ya like. But until then I don't think you wanna die, right? Of course I'm right! Get your head in the game, champ._

There's an alarm that starts blaring within seconds, and it startles him from his thoughts. Oh, shit, Fiona. She didn't get _caught_ , did she? He can't see them from here, so he's forced to move closer to the little group of nightmares. Despite his best efforts to ignore everything around him, he still glances the wall of propaganda and the diamond horse (what the hell?) on either side. He pushed whatever thoughts about them to the side. He catches himself, stops short, when he sees one of the other guards, one of the real guards, scanning over Fiona.

He's still a mess, it's hard to think straight, but he doesn't have much time before Fiona quite possibly gets caught. He draws his gun, draws it just as the guard pulls a small box from one of Fiona's pockets, and he's ready to shoot. They're supposed to to stay under the radar, but his mind isn't in a good place, and they're so close already. He just wants to get this _over with._ But he's not going to shoot, ot until someone else makes a move first, he's not _that_ trigger happy.

Thankfully nothing comes of it. She's allowed to move forwards with her 'group' in tow and even further down that long hallway. The door at the very end, he knows by heart, leads to Jack's office. He sucks in a sharp breath. He puts his pistol back, but he remains out of view, watching them as the other guard returns to his spot.

He braces himself as Fiona scans her key card. Even from this distance it's chilling to watch those doors slide open. He was half expecting Jack, even dead, to be lounging in his office, at his desk, and see Tim, put on that that smarmy faux smile and urge him inside. Or maybe try to choke him to death for _being bad and running off._ Maybe shoot him out an airlock. He wouldn't be the first.  
  
(Sometimes he still wakes up in sweats from vivid dreams of those poor scientists unknowingly about to be shot out into space. One had a son, the other was easily scared, the third gave Jack his pocket watch. The last one was Gladstone, who had done so much to help them. He can still remember staring in shock as the man is grasping at metal plating as his grip gives way and his head slams against the glass with a sickening thud, blood smearing across it's surface. Timothy pushed that button, Timothy killed those innocent men. He hadn't known that was what it would have done but he still _did it._ )

He can't hear what they're saying, just distant voices as the men shove past Fiona towards the entrance. One that's pushed ahead of the others is at the door- and then he's not. He simply _isn't._ There;s no man. In a sharp, quick zap of light the man who stood there is gone, the mask he'd been wearing hits the floor with a soft thump. Timothy stares and his stomach twists. He'd just been _vaporized._ That could have been Fiona or- or _Gortys._ Holy shit.

The door to the office he knew by heart shuts suddenly, one of the men letting out a terrified shout. That same soft voice rings out over the intercom once again.

**"Forcefield breach detected. Security lockdown engaged."**

"Oh- oh my god." Says one of the men.

"This isn't a tour, it's a goddamn death trap!"

 _What'd the expect?_ Jack's voice rings out in his mind, sounding bored. Timothy's lips twitch into a frown as he tries to push it back, it does nothing. _I-I mean c'mon! Do they know how many people died in that office? That poor bastard got the easy way out, if you ask me._

Shut up, you're not helping.

The other guard urges the man out, and Timothy slinks into the background as they pass, eyes screwing shut until he hears the elevator shut.

As his ECHO rings he's quick to pick up. "The door closed,"

"Very observant." Fiona's tone is impatient and flat. "Anything else you'd like to point out, captain obvious?"  
  
Timothy sighs.

"Yeah? Uhh, sorry, hold on." Vasquez's voice. "Yeah?" Then Rhys's. Timothy audibly sighs from the pointlessness of doing that. Fiona glances all the way back to where he is from her location.  
  
"I can't get into Jack's office."  
  
"What?! You gotta be kidding me, you had one job!" Rhys sounds truly exasperated and Timothy sighs heavily, cutting into the conversation.

"Some idiot ran right into a vaporizing force field at Jack's door. Probably standing in the guy's ashes right now," She lets out a disgusted scoff, he can practically hear her rolling her eyes at him.

"I- it's- I can't seem to get in." Timothy pauses. _Dammit._ Then there's only one way to do this. He cuts the line on his end, finally dragging himself towards the other guard. He can see Fiona, eyes wide and confused, glance at him briefly.

"Huh?" The other one lets out a confused sound and Timothy inwardly groans.

_Time to let your inner improve actor shine like the star he is, Timmy!_

"My shift's 'bout to start, why don't you get a head start?" The other guard seems to be staring at him, he can't see the man's face.

"Uhh, pal?" He starts slowly, and Timothy can already tell he fucked up.

_Well, good job messing that one up, buddy-boy._

"I just started my shift an hour ago, I still got four more to go. You sure you didn't get mixed up with someone else? I don't recognize you." Ah, _shit._ Well, fuck me, then. The man doesn't move from his spot in the chair. Timothy doesn't have a gun pointed at him, that's good news. _It's okay, Tim, you got this. Just focus. Remember what Fiona said, right? Eyes on the prize._

Timothy pauses before sighing, feigning frustration. "What?" He crosses his arms over his chest. "Just got this new promotion and they're _already_ fucking up my schedule? Which one of those assholes writes these schedules anyways?" Well, with that said he sure as hell hopes this guy doesn't write the schedules.

The other guard shakes their head. "Hey, don't worry about it. They're always messing up when they're fitting new people into guard duty. Within a day or so it'll be all settled." Timothy lets out a silent breath of relief and _smirks._

"Well my schedule still said I needed to be here, so that's a pain in the ass. You think they'd be mad if I decided to 'guard' the nearest coffee shop?" The other guard dares to let out a soft chuckle. _Hook, line, and **sinker.**_ He's got a plan rolling around in his skull, just get this guy out of the room, just for a minute, and he could get that door open.

The problem is getting the guy out of here, then.

Because if he can just get to that door, then-

Fiona pushes right past the checkpoint, it alerts them both with a start.

"Hey- _hey!_ " Woah, Woah, woah, woah! What the hell was she doing?! What the _hell_ are you doing, Fiona?!  
  
"Stop! What do you think you're doing?!" It comes out more authoritative, thanking years of practicing to be someone he's not. He likes to consider himself an actor of sorts.

"Putting this horse _down._ " She sounds so smug having come up with that witty rejoinder, and before the other guard can reach her she fires a single shot at the crystalline equine. Gortys has gone up to it and smacks it.

Then, perhaps the weirdest shit unfolds before their very eyes.

The statue...is it...?  
  
He just stares at it, and then glances at Fiona who gets tackled to the ground.  
  
"You didn't see anything!"

Holy shit is it fucking bleeding? Is there an actual horse under the gemstone? Holy shit, dude. If Fiona hadn't just fuced this up so badly, this would have been absolutely hilarious. How the guard insists she sees nothing, and Fiona's confused pleas to understand what the hell they're witnessing. Before the other guard can drag them off, however, Timothy cuts in. "I'll take 'em in." The other guard cocks his head to the side. "It's not even my shift, remember? That way I can go complain to the boss when I'm done."

The other guard just nods with a soft sound of understanding.  
  
His satisfaction is gone now. God _dammit._

They start walking, leaving the CEO's office-turned-memorial, and he waits a spell until they're far enough distance before he finally speaks. "What the _hell_ was that about?" He hisses the words, she glances back at him, looking bewildered. Was her mind still on the horse thing? Dammit she almost got _arrested!_

"I...have no idea. You saw it too, didn't you It was _bleeding._ "

"Not the statue, dammit. Why did you pull your gun out What the hell were you _thinking?_ "  
  
She shrugs and he huffs.

"Rhys said we needed to get arrested _._ "

" _What?_ Why would we need to do that?" What the hell, Rhys? What is going _on?_

"I 'unno."  
  
"He didn't _tell you?_ Oh, for the love of God." Fiona sighs in agreement.

Before long they arrive at the prison sector, and he comes up with more bullshit about schedules, only this time it actually works and the guy goes off on his 'break'. So it's just the three of them. Timothy sits on top of the desk, Fiona is seated in an uncomfortable looking chair, and Gortys as at her side. "That was a mess."  
  
Fiona glances over at him and then offers a weak smile. "Yup." She brushes her bangs from her face. "Wonder what Rhys's new plan is."  
  
Timothy's shrug is accompanied by a tired sigh. "If it involves the assholes in those masks again I think I'll pass." He doesn't get a response for that, not for a few very long moments. But when Fiona does speak again her voice is soft. "Hey, uh...are you- are you doing alright?"

He goes quiet.

So she noticed, huh? He supposes it was probably obvious, and he's still shaken, even now. He's absolutely not alright. No, not at all. He's a mess.  
  
"I'll live." She looks about ready to say something full of snark, judging by the look in her eyes, but before she gets the chance the doors open. They all freeze, Timothy ready to grab for his gun on sheer instinct alone. It's Rhys who steps in, however. Well not Rhys-Rhys. Rhys disguised as Vasquez. Rhysquez. Yeah, _that_ Rhys.

He looks up at the group and pauses for a moment when Timothy wave. He gives a nervous finger gun. Fiona rolls her eyes.

"Relax, it's just Tim." Fiona offers a small dismissive wave before Rhys can properly embarrass himself. The middle man clears his throat and nods towards her and then at Timothy who nods back. "Well," The modulator malfunctions, so Rhys's voice comes out instead. The man lets out a frustrated sigh.

"You know what? Screw this thing." He pulls the little voice modulator off his neck and tosses it to the side.  
  
"Ahem, anyways. This couldn't have gone better then, actually." Tim cocks his head to the side and hums. Rhys drops the disguise shortly after that, seemingly fed up with the slimy appearance as well. Timothy glance at Fiona and Gortys, who both just give him an 'I dunno' look, so he does the same. The weight of the armor gone in an instant. It feels good to be in his own skin, in familiar clothing, to not be covered in yellow and thick metal plating.

Rhys starts walking and the rest of them follow suit.

"So what's this plan of yours, exactly?" Fiona asks, stepping in line with Rhys. Rhys seems to hesitate, eyebrows furrowed together thoughtfully.  
  
"I found out about a trap door that leads to Jack's office." Timothy sighs, resists the urge to run a hand along his hidden face. Oh, if _course_. No shit! Jack's stupid cliché-ass trap door...thing.  
  
And it's weird Rhys knows about it, but at this point he can do nothing but add it to the list. He'd press the leggy bastard _after_ they got off this hellish space station.

He's lagging behind the two, mentally berating himself for forgetting Jack had a trap door of all things. That would have been the easiest way to do this to begin with! He's sure it's a deadly trap door (why would it be anything else This is Handsome Jack they're talking about), but there has to be some way to turn it off. Jack wouldn't tolerate his office smelling like rotting meat. He had very high standards for his office, you know, where he _strangled_ people to death. God, Jack was a horrible person.

There's an unpleasant grinding sound that meets his ears and an even more unpleasant scent of viscera assaulting his senses, and it pulls him from his own mental beatings. They've reached the end of the hall and indeed, they're surrounded by an assortment of random gore, the floor stained with blood and Timothy wrinkles his nose. It smells terrible. Well, they found their lovely little trap door, huh? _Great._

But that grinding is insufferable. In time their heads lift to the sound above them only to be greeted by various mechanisms of the deadly variety swinging and smashing in time above them.

"Of _course._ "

Why the hell the thing was still on, or why nobody had cleaned this place is beyond him. It's really gross, but about what he'd expected. He'd been _hoping_ it would be clean and turned off, but life's a bitch. He takes a small step and accidentally kicks at a long dead clap-trap unit. Rhys makes some joke asks if anyone's hungry, glancing at some stray intestines, only Gortys dignifies him with a response. Right now they need to find a way to turn this awful thing off.

Well, there's a box. With a lever on it. Brushing past the others he goes and lifts it, and as he does so the rotating blades and slamming spikes up above come to a stop. They all look up at it in silence once more, the metallic grinding and thrumming dying down. After a few seconds he releases his hold, and the level starts to fall back into it's original position with a soft 'tick-tick-tick'. The engines start growling back to life, the blades begin rotating, and he groans.  
  
Okay, well thanks for this Jack, it's fucking _useless_. It's incredible, a true gift, to be a prick even in death.

"Looks like someone's gonna have to hold this up while the rest of us go up." Timothy starts. Then, without skipping a beat, and probably cutting someone off, he continues. "I call dibs on holding the lever."

He can hear the short laugh that comes from Fiona who is looking over at him with this smug, knowing look on her soft features. "Not a fan of being mulched to death, are we?"  
  
Timothy scoffs. "Oh, that? Nah, that's _meh_. I'm just not a big fan of...well, ah, heights." He glances up again, squinting at the top of the shaft. A small shiver runs along his spine. No, nope, no way. He's had his share of heights for the rest of his life with the whole rocket thing.  
  
"From the way you were shaking on the way up the ladder to the rocket? Somehow that really doesn't surprise me." Timothy inhales sharply, then he grunts. Oh, she noticed that too, did she? He was amazed Janey forgot. Or maybe she didn't. Maybe just she decided to be an evil lesbian rocket scientist-mechanic-person. He's about ninety percent sure there's a sadist deep down behind all those smiles. A cruel, cruel sadist.

_You're such a drama queen, pumpkin._

Hey, nobody asked you, and you're the _king_ of drama, asshole.

"Y'know, I think Rhys will be the only one scrawny enough to fit." Of course that isn't actually true, she's probably just messing with him, but Rhys doesn't argue or disagree. Gortys takes it at face value though.

"Phew! Glad I got these meaty hamhocks!"

Timothy rolls his eyes at these three _dorks_ and pulls the lever again, and once again the death machine above slowly but surely stills to a halt. Rhys seems to be bracing himself, and looks over at Gortys. "Hey buddy could you, uh, boost me up?"

"No problem!"

Rhys makes his way over and precariously balances himself atop Gortys's head. She mentions it being incredibly painful, and Timothy makes a face at that. Make it quick, then, Rhys.  
  
Being boosted up meant a small nudge in the air, but Gortys nearly flings Rhys to the top of the shaft. Everyone is startled by that, but _especially_ Rhys, who's shouting the whole way, only to start falling again. Everything, save for Timothy, takes a step away from the hole. Timothy just pushes himself closer to the wall.

But Rhys manages to catch one of the rungs. The very bottom one as a matter of fact. And all Timothy can do is stare. Well he sure was glad that hadn't been him.  
  
"Rhys? You alright?" Fiona calls after a few moments.  
  
"Nope!" It's enough to pull a short laugh, nervous from Timothy. He wouldn't be either, Rhys.  
  
"Try not to barf, again. Or fall. Or both. How about you don't do either of those things, alright buddy?"

"Good thing I got that puking out my system earlier then, huh?" He chuckles nervously and Timothy makes a disgusted sound. Fiona urges Gortys to take a step back 'just to be safe'. Don't abandon Timothy here with Rhys, you sick woman! At some point both Gortys and Fiona try to 'encourage' Rhys to go faster, and the guy just stops near the top, too. Timothy wants to throw something at him, but before long Rhys is moving again, and he's reached the top.

The trap door opens and Timothy tenses up, watching Rhys, he feels a pang of something he can't describe. Then Rhys is gone, the trap is shut tightly and it leaves the three of them in silence.

"Maybe someone should've gone with him." Timothy finally says, after what feels like too long. Fiona glances over at him and he continues speaking. "There could be something else up there, what if he gets shot up by turrets or, I dunno..." There's something bothering him he can't place. Fiona sighs and shakes her head at him and his worries (even if she doesn't know what they are).

"He'll be fine. Besides we need someone down here to cover the back, right Gortys?"

Gortys beams up at them. "Right!"

That doesn't satisfy him, but he doesn't have much of a choice.

It's not long before Rhys gets on the line with Gortys (good, he isn't dead) and is looking over a shelf, a trophy case. Timothy chews the inside of his cheek. Sometimes it unnerves him how right he is about Jack, like somehow the bastard was secretly living under his skin, even in death. There's a lot of stuff, a lot of Atlas, predictably. He sees the goatee and he can't suppress the shudder that runs along his spine. That had been Tassiter's. Christ, Jack.

Nisha's old hat is there, too. Which makes the creeped out feeling dissipate instantly, and it's replaced with something heavier, sadder.

Nisha had been a bad person, her and Jack were made for each other. But she'd actually had her moments of being kind, incredibly rare, and even rarer when sober, but she'd had them. It'd been her who helped him with his marksmanship, and the news of her death coming shortly after that of Willhelm's did Timothy absolutely no favors.

They definitely would have killed him or dragged him back to Jack for _worse_ , but he still felt something for them, and can't help but feel a sense of loss when he thinks of them. They hadn't been friends, not in the traditional or conventional sense, but they'd been a team, if only for a short amount of time. And for someone with such a normal, moderate upbringing, it didn't take much for Tim to trust them. And he had trusted them more than he probably should have, but that was in the past now.

There was no use mulling over it, he had to focus on the _now_ , get the Gortys piece and ditch this tin can in the sky. Thankfully the piece is identified quickly afterwards and Rhys cuts the line just as he's scooping it up.

Rhys should have been down soon after that, but a minute passes, and then two, and then three.

"This is taking too long." He finally mutters, the silence and the waiting getting to him, finally.  
  
"Yeah, what is he _doing_ up there?" Fiona taps at her ECHO and Timothy's gaze returns to the trap door from Fiona. Timothy grunts and shrugs his shoulders, he can hear the heels of her heels click-clacking against the metallic floors. "Hey, is everything alright up there?" He can hear Rhys's voice muffled, and barely makes out 'getting into position'.

What does _that_ mean?

" _Oh!_ Someone is here!" Gortys is wandering off just as Fiona hangs up. Timothy lets out a startled grunt and snaps his attention towards the little robot now at the very end of the hall. She's talking to someone and that isn't _good._

Fiona calls out after her. "Hey...hey Gortys, come back here." Timothy glances up at the trap door at the end of the shaft above them.

"I got this, can you figure out what's going on? I'll try to get Rhys on the line." Fiona looks between him and the robot and back before nodding, and then she's going after the little robot.

"Rhys," He hisses through his ECHO, he gets nothing but silence. He glances down the hall, Fiona is trying to be sneaky, but Gortys spots her and points her out _. Shit._ " _Rhys!_ Answer me!"

He's glaring up at the top of the shaft again, as if it'll make the man respond. Then back down the hall. Fiona has straightened up, she looks surprised, not in a good way. Timothy can faintly hear voices he doesn't recognize.  
  
This is bad, very bad.

He can't even use his disguise to his advantage here, it's obvious he looks suspicious with those two, they'll probably figure it out within seconds. Timothy takes in a slow breath and pulls out his pistol. He still can't see them but when they turn the corner they're sure to see him and-  
  
"He-he-heeeeey, friends," The voice echoes through the walls from the PA systems, but not just one of them nearby, _all_ of them. It puts his thoughts to a grinding halt, everyone falls dead silent. Timothy's grip on the lever is tight, so tight it hurts. He recognizes that voice, he'd know it anywhere. "Remember me? It's your old pal, Jack."

It takes too much to breathe. His hands are trembling. He activates his ECHO. " _Rhys,_ " His voice is pleading. Something about this doesn't feel like some per-recorded message, not with the dead silence and the way that the Hyperion workers down the hall are staring at the ceiling like they're hearing _G_ _od._

"Well, pencils down amigos, I've got someone to introduce you to." His voice feels like it's coming from _everywhere_.

"There's a new president in town. That's right, baby! Get those hands'a clappin'." Rhys's behavior back at the dome comes to mind suddenly. "Cause I wanna give a very warm Hyperion welcome to the chiefest of executives-- totally president material, all the way from janitorial...my man, Rhys!"

Oh, god, _what?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm still going to finish this but i'm slowing down with updates. even if i have to force myself to do it bcos i'm determined, if nothing else. it's almost done anyways so i will end this even if i have to sell my soul to do it.
> 
> nyatsuma read this over for me! i appreciate it!
> 
> EDIT AS OF 7/17/2017: i'm so sorry i haven't updated this fic yet. it's not dead, i'm not dead. i've just burned myself out of writing hardcore lately. i will get it out, i promise, and i'll make sure to have people pester me about it. i just wanted to let ya'll know that. 
> 
> ive also got another fic in the works!!!


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